Russia has introduced 122 missiles and dozens of drones against Ukrainian targets, it said Friday, killing at least 30 civilians across the country in what an Air Force official called the largest aerial bombardment of the war.
At least 144 other people were wounded and an unknown number were buried under the rubble in the attack, which lasted about 18 hours, Ukrainian officials said. A maternity hospital, apartment buildings and schools were among the buildings destroyed across Ukraine.
In the capital, Kyiv, damaged glass and mutilated steel crowd the city’s streets. Air raid and emergency service sirens sounded as plumes of smoke floated through a bright blue sky.
Kateryna Ivanivna, a 72-year-old Kyiv resident, said she threw herself to the ground when a missile struck.
“There was an explosion, then flames,” she said. “I covered my head and got down in the street. Then I ran into the subway station.”
Meanwhile, in Poland, the government said what appeared to be a Russian missile entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from Ukraine and later denied the radar print.
During the attack on Ukraine, the air force intercepted maximum ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as Shahed-type drones, overnight, Ukrainian army leader Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.
Western officials and analysts recently warned that Russia has limited its cruise missile movements for months in an obvious attempt to build up reserves for large movements over the winter, hoping to break Ukraine’s morale.
The result is “the largest large-scale airstrike” since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his official Telegram channel. It is the largest previous attack, in November 2022, when Russia introduced 96 missiles, and the largest this year, with 81 missiles on March 9, according to Air Force records.
Fighting along the front line is largely stalled by winter weather after Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive failed to make a significant breakthrough along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) line of contact.
People clear debris at the site of the Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko).
Ukrainian officials have suggested to the country’s Western allies that they provide it with more air defense. Their calls are symptoms of war fatigue, which is testing efforts to stay in place.
The U. N. Security Council met Friday to discuss the attack, which Under Secretary-General Khaled Khiari called “appalling. “
“Tragically, 2023 ends as it began: with devastating violence against the other peoples of Ukraine,” he said, stressing that foreign humanitarian law prohibits attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.
President Joe Biden said in a statement that the bombings demonstrate that Russian President Vladimir Putin will have to be arrested, “but unless Congress takes urgent action in the new year, we will not be able to continue to send the important weapons and air defense systems that Ukraine wants to protect its people. Congress will have to step in and act.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the attack should stir the world to further action in support of Ukraine.
“These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy,” Sunak said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “We must continue to stand with Ukraine — for as long as it takes.”
U. N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the Russian attack “in the strongest terms” and said attacks on civilians were unacceptable and must be prevented immediately, according to a statement.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the scale of the attack raises awareness of Ukraine’s persistent needs.
“Today, millions of Ukrainians woke up to the sound of explosions,” he wrote in X. “Hopefully those sounds of the explosions in Ukraine can be heard around the world. In all the capitals, seats and parliaments of the major cities, we have lately debated more thoroughly for Ukraine.
In Kyiv, shelling destroyed a metro station in front of a factory owned by the Artem company, which produces weapons-grade missile parts. Officials did not say whether the plant was directly affected.
In total, the attack affected six cities and there were reports of deaths and injuries across the country. Several dozen missiles were fired at Kyiv and more than 30 were intercepted, said Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv’s army administration. Eight other people were killed there, according to authorities.
In Boyarka, near kyiv, debris from a downed drone fell into a space and started a fire. Andrii Korobka, 47, said her mother was sleeping next to the room where her remains landed and she was taken to the hospital in shock.
“The war continues and can affect any house, even if you think yours will never be touched,” Korobka said.
Tetiana Sakhnenko lives next door and said neighbors ran with buckets of water to put out the fire, but they did so quickly. “It’s very scary,” she said.
In the eastern city of Dnipro, four patients at a maternity hospital were rescued from a fire, five others were killed and 20 injured, officials said.
In this photo provided through Ukraine’s emergency services, firefighters work in the ruins of a shopping mall destroyed in Russia’s largest missile strike in Dnipro, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 (AP Ukraine Emergency Service).
In Odessa, on the southern coast, falling debris from a drone sparked a fire in a multi-storey residential building, according to regional leader Oleh Kiper. Two other people were killed and 15 others, as well as two children, were injured, he said. .
The mayor of the western city of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, said a user was killed there and three schools and a kindergarten were destroyed in a drone strike. The local emergency reported 30 injured.
In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city had been subjected to at least three waves of airstrikes, adding S-300 and Kh-21 missile launches. One user was killed and at least nine were injured, the government said.
Associated Press writer Dmytro Zhyhinas contributed to this report. AP reporter Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of CTV News journalists. We may earn a commission when you use our links to make purchases. Read about us.