Russia launches one of the most devastating attacks against Ukraine, with at least 25 dead in Kyiv

BarcelonaOn Wednesday night into Thursday, Russia again attacked Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine with dozens of cruise missiles and drones, just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was preparing a new large-scale attack. At least 25 people have died and around a hundred more have been injured, including two children, according to the head of the military administration of the city of Kyiv, Timur Tkachenko, and the mayor, Vitali Klitschko. Search and rescue operations in collapsed buildings will continue through the night, and authorities have warned that the death toll is likely to rise.

Klitschko put the number of injured at 86, 70 of whom have been hospitalized, and described the attack as the "most massive" of the war against the capital. "It has been a terrible night for Kyiv," he said, adding that all districts of the city have been affected. The city council has declared Friday a day of mourning.

The Air Force of Ukraine stated that Russia launched 74 missiles and 496 long-range drones during the attack, most of them directed against Kyiv. Ukrainian air defenses managed to shoot down or neutralize 48 missiles and 476 drones, but 25 ballistic missiles and 12 drones impacted 33 locations. According to the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, an ambulance base, a scientific institute, a hotel, and several businesses were destroyed.

Twenty-eight of the missiles fired at the capital were ballistic missiles, a record number for a single attack on the capital, as highlighted by Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Forces, on national television.

Zelensky, who interrupted his visit to Ireland, visited a site on the left bank of the city where a nine-story residential building was half-destroyed. He attributed the destruction in part to the failure to deliver promised air defenses by the allies. "If our partners had fulfilled their promises on time, I believe we could have saved more homes and lives today," he lamented. "All we ask of our partners is simply to do what we have agreed. We are not even asking for more," he added.

The attack affected thirty points in all districts of the Ukrainian capital, destroyed several residential buildings and caused damage to a hotel in the center. "The enemy is once again attacking residential areas and killing civilians. There has been a lot of destruction and a significant number of victims, including children," Tkatchenko declared.

The main private energy company, DTEK, also reported that the bombing damaged its infrastructure in Kyiv, leaving several residents without electricity.

Attacks from all directions

According to The Kyiv Independent, the first explosions occurred before ten o'clock last Wednesday night, first with missiles and then with drones. A total of 52,500 people spent the night in metro stations for shelter, a record figure, according to Kyiv Metro on its Telegram channel. The second phase of the attack began around two in the morning, and detonations could be heard even from underground shelters. Several residential buildings caught fire and, according to Klitxkó, a nine-story building caught fire. Among the fatalities are members of rescue teams and other civilians.

Zelenski had warned of the bombing a few hours earlier: "Once or twice a week there are large-scale air raids. Today we have worrying news about the preparations for another massive Russian air raid of this type. We have relevant intelligence data." In the areas closest to the front, Russian attacks do not stop: the most serious on Wednesday was a glide bomb attack on Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, which killed a 15-year-old boy and injured 32 civilians.

Prepared for a massive attack

Ukrainians had spent the last few days preparing for a massive attack, after Russia promised retaliation for Ukraine's drone attacks on Moscow in June. At that time, a large-scale Ukrainian bombing brought the drone war to the Russian capital for the first time, disabled Moscow's oil refinery and exacerbated fuel shortages across the country. In addition, Ukraine has been intensely attacking infrastructure to supply the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Zelensky has accused Putin of resorting to a campaign of massive ballistic attacks against Ukrainian cities to compensate for Russian failures on the battlefield.

Everything indicates that Russia is changing its tactics in attacks against Ukraine: it is launching more ballistic missiles to take advantage of the scarcity of American Patriot air defense systems in Kyiv and is focusing on residential areas, civilian infrastructure and cultural heritage.