KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Officials said Friday that Russia fired 122 missiles and a number of drones against Ukrainian targets, killing at least 22 civilians across the country, in what an Air Force official said was the largest aerial bombardment of the war.
The Ukrainian Air Force intercepted most of the Shahed-type ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones overnight, said Ukrainian military chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his official Telegram channel that it was “the most massive air strike” since the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the largest attack to date took place in November 2022, when Russia fired 96 missiles into Ukraine. This year, there were 81 missiles on March 9, according to Air Force records.
Western officials and analysts recently warned that Russia has scaled back its cruise missile attacks in recent months, apparently to stockpile for massive winter strikes in the hope of breaking the Ukrainians' spirit.
Fighting on the front line has largely stalled due to winter weather after Ukraine's summer counteroffensive failed to make a significant breakthrough along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) contact line.
Ukrainian officials have called on the country's Western allies to equip the country with more air defense systems to protect against airstrikes like the one on Friday. Their appeals are a sign that war fatigue is complicating efforts to maintain support.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the massive attack should prompt the world to take further action to support Ukraine.
“These widespread attacks on Ukraine's cities show that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his goal of eradicating freedom and democracy,” Sunak said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter . “We must continue to stand by Ukraine – for as long as it takes.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the scale of the attack should make people aware of Ukraine's ongoing needs.
“Today millions of Ukrainians woke up to the loud sound of explosions,” he wrote on Debate support for Ukraine.”
At least 128 people were injured and an unknown number were buried under rubble during the roughly 18-hour attack, Ukrainian officials said. Damaged buildings across Ukraine included a maternity hospital, apartment blocks and schools.
In this photo provided by Ukrainian Emergency Services, firefighters work at the site of a building damaged after a Russian attack in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 29, 2023. (Ukrainian Ambulance Service via AP)
In Boyarka, a town near Kiev, debris from a downed drone fell on a house and caused a fire.
Andrii Korobka, 47, said his mother was sleeping next to the room where the debris landed and was taken to hospital in shock.
“The war continues and it can affect any home, even if you think your home will never be affected,” Korobka said.
Tetiana Sakhnenko, who lives next door, said neighbors ran with buckets of water to put out the fire but it quickly spread. “It’s so scary,” she said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kremlin forces had used a variety of weapons, including ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
“Today Russia has used almost every kind of weapon in its arsenal,” Zelensky said on X.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said Russia “apparently fired everything it has” in the attack, with the exception of submarine-launched Kalibr missiles.
The airstrike, which began on Thursday and continued throughout the night, hit six cities, including the capital Kiev and other areas in east-west and north-south Ukraine, authorities said.
Reports of deaths and damage were received from across the country.
Five people were killed and 20 injured in the eastern city of Dnipro, where four patients from a maternity hospital were rescued from a fire, officials said.
In Odessa on the southern coast, falling drone wreckage caused a fire in a multi-story residential building, according to regional director Oleh Kiper. Two people were killed and 15, including two children, were injured in the attack in Odessa, he said.
The mayor of the western city of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, said a drone strike in the region killed one person, injured eight and damaged three schools and a kindergarten.
Several dozen rockets were fired at Kiev during the night, and more than 30 of them were intercepted, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kiev military administration. The attack sparked a fire at a warehouse in the capital's Podil district, where five people were reportedly pulled from the rubble. Three people were killed in the capital.
In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city suffered at least three waves of airstrikes overnight, including S-300 and Kh-21 missile launches. One person was killed and at least nine were injured, officials said.
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Dmytro Zhyhinas contributed to this story
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