Russian missiles and drones bombarded Kiev on Tuesday morning in a major attack on the Ukrainian capital and other cities that killed at least five people and wounded nearly 130 others, officials said. A day after Russian President Vladimir V. Putin promised retaliation for a Ukrainian attack on a Russian city.
The barrage – which the Ukrainian Air Force said involved about 100 missiles, including hypersonic weapons that travel at several times the speed of sound – was the latest in an escalating cycle of airstrikes between the two countries, with both sides looking for ways to carry them out Damage away from the largely deadlocked front line.
Moscow claimed Ukraine retaliated hours later on Tuesday, firing at least eight rockets into the Russian city of Belgorod. According to the local governor, one civilian was killed and four others were injured in the attack. Later in the day, a strike broke out in the nearby town of Shebekino, the governor said, damaging an administrative building but causing no injuries.
The recent attacks against Ukraine could also be the start of another Russian airstrike against critical infrastructure. Ukrainian authorities had warned for months that Russia was stockpiling high-precision missiles to bomb cities as soon as the weather turned cold, in a repeat of last year's bombings. Experts believe the strategy is aimed at weakening Ukraine's morale and weakening its military and industrial capabilities.
Both sides have improved their air defenses over the past year, but also expanded their military capabilities to hit targets away from the front lines. And as last week's cycle of attacks and counterstrikes escalates, Moscow and Kiev are showing a growing willingness to use these capabilities.
“This is an endurance competition,” said Serhii Kuzan, chairman of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation research group. He said that Ukraine's strong air defense is now forcing Russia to launch massive air strikes with multiple weapon systems to evade interceptor missiles and hit some targets.
General Valery Zaluzhny, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine, said The Ukrainian army shot down about three quarters of the Russian missiles fired on Tuesday, including all ten hypersonic missiles, with the help of Western-supplied Patriot missile batteries.
Mr Kuzan said Ukraine was now also more willing and able to respond.
With each new attack, Russia increasingly legitimizes “Ukraine’s retaliatory strikes against Russian air and naval bases, ammunition depots, defense companies and enemy oil bases.”
Both sides appear to be justifying the airstrikes as retaliation for previous attacks, an escalating back-and-forth that risks causing even more civilian casualties, whether from direct attacks or from falling debris. Since the war began, Russia has regularly attacked civilian areas in Ukraine, resulting in thousands of casualties.
In Kiev on Tuesday, most of the casualties were reported in a nine-story residential building that was partially destroyed and caught on fire. At least two people died and 49 others were injured, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Building residents could be seen streaming out of the neighborhood Tuesday morning with bags in hand, stepping on piles of rubble, between smashed cars and in large puddles created by damage to water pumps, while firefighters, faces blackened by smoke, sprayed water on the blaze .
A man tried to rush past a line of police officers, shouting that his wife was still inside and possibly under the rubble. On a nearby street, two people ran after an ambulance, screaming that a woman needed urgent help. After the ambulance stopped, they helped her get inside.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” the woman said as she entered the ambulance.
The latest wave of rocket attacks intensified on Friday as a heavy Russian rocket fire killed at least 39 people, injured about 160 others and hit industrial and military infrastructure as well as hospitals and schools, Ukrainian officials said.
The next day – a Ukrainian official said it was in response to the Russian attack on Friday – a rocket barrage killed 24 people in the Russian city of Belgorod – the deadliest attack on Russian territory since the war began.
In his New Year's speech, Putin announced retaliatory measures. “From our side, we will intensify the strikes,” he said.
Hitting Kiev on Tuesday appeared to be a priority target. Air alerts sounded throughout the morning and wave after wave of missiles rained down, punctuated by loud bangs from air defense systems trying to destroy them. Huge clouds of black and white smoke rose over the capital and cut through the gray morning sky as several buildings were hit.
According to Russian officials, the Belgorod region was attacked again on Tuesday, possibly in Ukraine's response to the morning's attacks. Ukrainian officials have not yet commented on this attack.
Ukraine's largest Western allies have expressly banned the government in Kiev from using the weapons it supplies to attack targets within Russia's internationally recognized borders. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Ukraine's latest attacks on the Belgorod region on Tuesday were fired from a Ukrainian-made Vil'kha multiple rocket launcher, highlighting the country's growing domestic military capabilities.
Analysts assume that Russia was able to expand its own missile production last year despite Western sanctions. Ukrainian officials warned in the fall that Russia had stockpiled more than 800 high-precision weapons in preparation for massive winter attacks.
.
It was not immediately clear what exactly the Russian military was trying to hit with its attacks on Kiev on Tuesday. At least two plants in an industrial area in the north of the capital were hit and remained shrouded in smoke until midday. Ukraine's Energy Ministry also said nearly 260,000 residents were temporarily without power on Tuesday, suggesting the power grid may have been one of the targets.
“These rockets are a bit random,” said Serhii Zarybin, a cement factory employee, as he looked at the remains of a large auto repair shop that burned down in a strike. Ahead of him, dozens of cars were charred and twisted metal sheets were strewn everywhere as a thick cloud of white smoke hovered over the site.
In the residential building hit on Tuesday, the same scene could be seen again and again on each of the nine floors: doors shattered by the explosion and pieces of furniture lying all over the floor. Police officers entered the apartments and tried to find out whether any residents were trapped under the rubble.
On one floor, pillows and blankets lay in a debris-covered hallway. During airstrikes, Ukrainians often seek shelter in the hallways of their homes and use the walls to protect themselves from explosions.
As she came down the stairs littered with brick dust and broken glass, Lidiia Dudchenko, 71, said: “There was an explosion and it was a miracle that we survived.”
“I have never experienced anything so terrible,” she added.
In another apartment, Yevhen Pesiura, 40, packed clothes and valuable belongings into a suitcase as shards of glass shattered under his feet. “I can’t live there anymore,” he said with cuts on his face, pointing to the scene of devastation in his apartment.
There was widespread resentment towards Russia in Kiev after Tuesday's attack, and as the war drags on it could strengthen the country's resolve to bring the fighting to Moscow's doorstep.
Looking out at a factory enveloped in a huge cloud of gray and yellow smoke, Serhii Dubov, 45, said he just wanted “the other side to feel the same as us.”
“I just want them to end up sitting in their basement too, listening to the explosions,” he said, “and being scared.”
Daria Mitiuk and Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.