Russia introduced new strikes around the Ukrainian capital and other regions overnight, adding the dispatch of Iranian-made self-detonating drones filled with explosives to cities around Kiev. Fourth day of retaliation by Moscow for a bombing that broke a bridge that offered the only land link between Russia and the occupied Crimean peninsula.
Vladimir Putin’s escalation of war against Ukraine is now led by an uncompromising commander whose reputation for brutality has earned him the nickname “General Armageddon. “For days, it has been transparent that the strategy is to build the airstrike only on the front lines, where Russia has lost ground in recent weeks, however, throughout Ukraine.
It was not clear quickly whether the self-detonating drones killed or injured anyone, but Ukrainian authorities said Thursday that thirteen other people had been killed and about 40 wounded in the past 24 hours of Russian missile movements in Ukraine.
The southern city of Mykolaiv was attacked early Thursday, with Russian missiles destroying a five-story building. Regional Governor Vitaliy Kim said an 11-year-old boy was pulled from the rubble six hours after the attack, but seven others remain missing. Kim said Russia hit construction with an S-300 missile, a weapon designed and generally used to shoot down enemy jets. The army lacks armament and morale.
“We know, and the Russian commanders on the floor know, that their weapons and ammunition are running out,” Sir Jeremy Fleming, head of British cyber intelligence firm GCHQ, said Tuesday.
The city of Zaporizhzhia, located on Ukrainian territory but not far from the large Russian-occupied nuclear power plant, which is causing fears about a conceivable nuclear fate twist, was also attacked on Thursday.
The city, about 20 miles from the nuclear power plant, has been the target of relentless Russian bombing. Some of the missiles landed in residential spaces and CBS News saw rescuers shoot a victim in the rubble of a building.
In the past two weeks, more than 70 civilians have been killed by the Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukraine’s military says it has controlled shooting down dozens of Iranian-made “Shahed-136” missiles and drones that Russia has fired over the past week, but with so many more still managing to wreak havoc on the country’s infrastructure and besiege civilians. He desperately wants more help.
To prevent the airstrike, President Volodymyr Zelensky this week called on the United States and other partners to send increasingly complex missile defense systems to Ukraine. He is confident that help is on the way.