Rain of missiles and drones. Large explosions and the creaking of windows woke up many residents of Dnipro and other major cities in Ukraine this Friday, forcing them to seek shelter after 674 days of war have passed. This morning Russia launched a massive attack using drones and various types of missiles on hospitals, schools, factories, shopping centers, apartments and warehouses in Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa, Zaporizhia, Lviv and Dnipro. Large cities far from the front lines, where citizens have settled into a new normal. The attack, which Kiev calls the largest of its kind since the Kremlin began its full-scale invasion, comes three days after Ukraine destroyed a Russian warship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia – another major blow to the Russian navy. There are at least 18 dead and dozens injured across the country. President Volodymyr Zelensky put the number of missiles fired by Moscow on Ukrainian territory in addition to drones at 110. 150 projectiles in total. According to the president, most of them were intercepted by air defense.
After the wave of attacks, Poland, a member of NATO and the European Union, reported that an “unidentified air object” had entered its airspace from the side of the border with Ukraine. Polish Army Chief of General Staff Wieslaw Kukula said the most likely scenario was that the object was a Russian missile that changed course and returned to Ukraine after violating the neighboring country's airspace. According to the general, the possible missile flew 40 kilometers and stayed over Polish territory for less than three minutes. In November 2022, a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile attempting to intercept a Russian attack crashed in Poland, killing two people in the town of Przewodów.
The Kremlin has been attacking Ukrainian territory for several hours with hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles, including the X-22, which are extremely difficult to intercept, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on television. Ukraine. “We have never seen so many places attacked at the same time,” Ihnat added. If Zelensky's report is confirmed, this Friday's bombing of six major cities would be the largest of its kind since Russia began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with 96 missiles on Ukrainian territory. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia was targeting civilian and critical infrastructure.
In Dnipro, one of the bombings damaged a shopping center, several apartment blocks and houses, and a maternity hospital. Almost all the windows in the hospital were broken. The women and health workers had sought refuge in the basement. In the yard of one of these damaged apartment blocks, near the shopping center, authorities have set up a small tent where neighbors gather. It's a particularly gray morning. Liudmila Sergueyeva, 68, crouches in her gray coat, waiting to tell the staff in the tent that her home is among those affected. “There is no glass anymore, everything is broken,” he complains. He says he was preparing to receive his daughter and three grandchildren this afternoon to celebrate the New Year. “What do we do now,” he says. Five people were killed and more than twenty injured in the Kremlin's bombing of this city in central Ukraine, which is a major communications hub and crucial to logistics, according to the mayor's office.
The Russian attack this Friday covered almost all of Ukraine, from Kharkiv – the second largest Ukrainian city before the Great War – in the east and less than 40 kilometers from Russia, to Lviv in the west, 70 kilometers from Poland. In Kharkiv, the attack caused damage to a hospital and several residential buildings, according to the local government.
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One of the buildings affected by the Russian attack on Dnipro this Friday.ARSEN DZODZAIEV (EFE)
In the capital Kiev, seven people were injured by the remnants of projectiles intercepted by Ukrainian air defense, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who assured that three people were trapped in the rubble of a warehouse affected by the bombing. Klitschko claimed on his Telegram channel that a subway station that served as a bomb shelter was also attacked.
In Lviv, very far from the front and considered one of the safest cities, one person died and several were injured in this morning's attacks, according to local authorities. In the port city of Odessa, two people were killed and at least 15 injured, including children, in bomb attacks on residential buildings.
Ukraine has recently significantly improved its air defense thanks to Western help, but gaps still remain. Particularly vulnerable to combined missile and drone fire. The Russian attack this Friday comes as the invaded country prepares to celebrate the New Year, one of the great traditional festivals, almost more important than Christmas. This also came after the destruction of the Russian landing ship Novocherkassk by a Ukrainian air offensive in occupied Crimea, the umpteenth blow to the Russian Navy, and a day after the United States approved another military aid package for Kiev worth about 200 million euros with anti-aircraft material, ammunition and anti-tank weapons.
This package from Washington is the last available to Ukraine until Congress approves more, which is not easy as talks about approving more aid are on hold. Progress on the battlefield appears to have stalled and the war has become a battle for position after the Ukrainian counteroffensive failed to achieve its desired objectives.
As the Zelensky government waits to receive more military aid from its allies, it has warned the US and EU that if it does not receive the promised funds, it could be forced to stop paying two million civil servants and more than one million recipients of social benefits, as EL PAÍS reported. Kyiv is also calling for a new donor conference.
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