Russia unleashed a fresh volley of missiles on Ukraine overnight, setting off huge blazes in a city in the east, damaging dozens of homes and causing widespread casualties.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said in its evening report that a number of people had been killed in the attacks on Monday night, including children, but gave no further details. Officials said at least 34 people were hurt.
The attack on Pavlohrad, a city and railway hub, came during the second wave of nationwide missile strikes in three days, with Moscow apparently reviving its winter tactic of long-range strikes ahead of a planned Ukrainian counteroffensive.
A huge crater had been blasted in the backyard of a house that was strewn with debris on the outskirts of Pavlohrad in southeastern Ukraine, around 100 kilometers from the front line. Homes nearby were badly damaged. In the city centre, the windows of a dormitory that serves a chemical plant had been blown out.
“I ran outside and saw the garage was destroyed. Everything was on fire, glass shards were everywhere. Had we been outside, we would have been killed,” said resident Olha Lytvynenko, 61.
Viktoriia Suprun, 41, said she had taken cover with her daughter in the hallway of the dormitory.
“We rushed to the hallway, laid on the floor. And then the explosion wave twisted the door. Had we stayed for five more seconds, we would have been trapped here,” she said.
Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region council, said the attack had damaged 19 apartment blocks, 25 houses, three schools, three kindergartens and several shops. The 34 wounded included five children, the region’s governor said.
The Ukrainian general staff report noted civilian dead and wounded, with children among the casualties. It said apartment buildings had been damaged along with schools, hospitals and kindergartens.
RUSSIA SAYS TARGETS MILITARY
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had struck using high-precision long-range air and sea-based missiles against “Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities”.
“The objectives of the strike were achieved,” it said in a statement. “The work of enterprises making ammunition, weapons and military equipment for Ukrainian troops has been disrupted.”
Damage appeared to be limited elsewhere in Ukraine, after air raid sirens sounded for hours through the night. Ukraine said it shot down 15 of 18 incoming cruise missiles.
Officials in the capital Kyiv said there were no reports of civilian casualties or damage there.
The missile attacks came just three days after Russia killed 23 civilians in a high-rise apartment building in the city of Uman with a missile, part of its first big countrywide volley of air strikes in nearly two months.
Russia had launched waves of missile attacks on Ukraine from October until early March, often targeting energy infrastructure in what Kyiv called a deliberate strategy to harm and intimidate civilians, a war crime. Moscow says it does not target civilians and its attacks aim to reduce Kyiv’s ability to fight.
On the ground, the war is at a potential turning point after five months of Russian assaults that have secured little new territory despite the bloodiest ground combat of the war.
Kyiv is preparing to unleash a counterattack using hundreds of armoured vehicles and tanks donated by allies, and thousands of troops recently returned from training in the West.
The Ukrainian General Staff said fighting continued to grip the city of Bakhmut, focal point of Russian attacks in the east.
A top Ukrainian general said counterattacks by Kyiv’s forces had ousted Russian forces from some positions in the city, but that the situation remained difficult.
The head of a Russian mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in a video posted online that his fighters were receiving a fraction of the shells they needed for the assault on Bakhmut.
via Reuters
