Russian missiles ruthlessly strike Kyiv, leaving 15 dead

MoscowLong-range attacks have once again been deadly, another night, in the war in Ukraine. At least fifteen people have died in Kyiv and its region, and around forty more have been injured, after a massive Russian bombing with missiles and drones, one of the most brutal since the start of the invasion, according to authorities. Air defenses have seen, again helplessly, how an indeterminate number of ballistic missiles – military analysts estimate around 25 – bypassed their protection and hit various locations in the capital. Ukrainian air forces have stopped providing the quantity of these devices fired by Russia because they cannot shoot any down.

The attack began after midnight and forced a good part of the residents of the Ukrainian capital to take refuge in the metro. Explosions were repeated around six in the morning and alarms sounded again near nine. Eight people died in the Solomianskyi district, one of the most affected. There, projectiles hit a nine-story residential building, a children's hospital, a school, and a kindergarten. Moscow claims to have bombed industrial and military facilities, but Ukraine maintains that inhabited areas, food warehouses, and Red Cross buildings have been attacked.

Volodymyr Zelensky has denounced that Moscow had been preparing "for a long time", combining ballistic missiles, 46 cruise missiles, and 168 drones, "with the aim of causing as much damage as possible to civilian infrastructure". The Ukrainian president laments that "cynical" attacks like these "do not always receive the response they should have from the world" and assures that, although they are doing everything possible to protect the skies of their cities, the American Patriot interceptors "cannot yet be replaced and we need them every day". "One cannot simply watch in silence, with indifference and inaction, as the Russians destroy lives with ballistic missiles," Zelensky concluded.

According to the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, one in three houses in the city has suffered Russian bombings, meaning around 4,000. Local authorities have announced that they are installing mobile shelters and seeking funding to prepare for winter, when a new campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure is expected, which could leave tens of thousands of people without heating again.

In the Ukrainian region of Odessa, the Russian army has also hit a border crossing with Moldova. During the attack, a probably Russian drone violated Romanian and Moldovan airspace and crashed in a depopulated area of Romania. This, after on Sunday another Russian drone entered the skies of this NATO country and ended up being shot down by two Spanish F-18 fighter jets.

Ukraine attacks Russian oil

Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones have once again hit Nizhnekamsk, about 1,200 kilometers from their borders. This industrial town hosts one of Russia's largest oil refineries, with a capacity to produce sixteen million tons of fuel each year. Videos from specialized channels show the plant in flames and smoking, and the governor of Tatarstan states that there have been injuries. Ten days ago, another wave of unmanned devices targeted the refinery in this town and caused thirteen fatalities, including nine oil plant workers who were sleeping in a nearby hostel. All of them were citizens of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. There were also about eighty injured.

Ukraine has launched more than 700 drones overnight. Another of Kyiv's targets has been the port of Taman, near the Kerch Bridge, built to connect Russia with the Crimean peninsula. The vehicles have affected an electrical substation at the port and the oil export terminal, one of the most important in the Black Sea. Ukrainian attacks in this area have practically forced the port of Novorossiysk, the largest in the region, to a standstill, and have also left a large part of Crimea's residents without electricity.