Russia launches the ninth wave of missile attacks on Kyiv this month
Russia has attacked Ukraine’s capital Kyiv from the air for the ninth consecutive time in the month.
Kyiv authorities reported that it appeared all missiles were destroyed. However, debris from the air caused damage in two districts.
One person has been killed and two more wounded in a missile strike on the Black Sea port of Odesa, officials say.
In the west central regions of Vinnytsia and Khmelnytsky, as well as Zhytomyr, blasts were heard.
In total, 29 of the 30 missiles that Russia launched overnight were destroyed, Ukraine’s Air Force announced in a press release.
The military administration of Kyiv said “a series of air attacks against Kyiv continue, which are unprecedented in terms of their intensity, power and variety”.
In the latest overnight attack, Russia used cruise missiles and reconnaissance drones, it said.
Ukraine claimed to have shot down six Kinzhal Hypersonic Missiles in an “exceptionally dense attack” on Tuesday.
Before the all-clear signal was given by the mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko, a fire broke out in a garage located in the Darnytsya district of Kyiv. However, he added that no one had been hurt.
The head of Kyiv’s civilian military administration said a heavy missile attack had been launched from Russian strategic bombers over the Caspian Sea.
Serhiy Popko said the attack probably included cruise missiles, adding that Russia had deployed reconnaissance drones over Kyiv after unleashing its wave of air strikes.
He said a second fire had broken out in a non-residential building in Kyiv’s eastern Desnyansky district, but did not give an update on if anyone was hurt.
At least eight people were reportedly killed – including a five-year-old boy near Kherson – and 17 were injured by shelling on Wednesday, as both sides traded accusations of striking civilian areas.
Slowly but surely Ukraine is getting ready to launch a huge assault on Russia’s invading forces.
Western officials say Ukraine’s army is at “an increased state of readiness” ahead of a long-awaited counter-offensive against Russia’s invasion.
The officials said many of Kyiv’s military capabilities were now “coming together” – including its ability to deploy tanks, fighting vehicles and combat engineers, as well as clearing mines, bridging rivers and striking long-range targets.
They said Russian troops were in a parlous state but warned that Moscow’s defensive lines in Ukraine were “potentially formidable” and guarded by “extensive minefields”.
So the officials argued the success of any Ukrainian offensive should be measured not just by territorial gains but also by whether it convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin to rethink his strategy.
The “cognitive effect on the Kremlin”, they claimed, was more important than Ukrainian forces cleaving through Russian lines all the way to the border.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met with a Chinese diplomat in Kyiv and rejected any peace plan which would involve them giving up territory to Russia.
But an agreement allowing Ukraine to export millions of tonnes of grain through the Black Sea has been extended for two months, the day before it was due to expire.
