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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Jacob Phillips

At least five dead as Russia targets Ukraine in second day of massive strikes

At least five people have been killed after Russia fired waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Ukraine, a day after Moscow launched the biggest air attack of its invasion.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks included 81 drones, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles, and that 16 people were injured.

He said four people died, but the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region later said a fifth person had died there from burns in the attacks.

"We will undoubtedly respond to Russia for this and all other attacks. Crimes against humanity cannot go unpunished," Mr Zelensky wrote on X.

Two people were killed when a hotel was "wiped out" in the central Ukraine city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said.

Three people died in drone attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia, east of Kryvyi Rih.

Ukrainian air defences shot down about 15 drones and several missiles near Kyiv during Russia's overnight attack, according to Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration.

"Everything that flew to the capital of Ukraine was destroyed," he said in a statement via the Telegram messaging app.

Rescuers stand at a site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine in Kryvyi Rih (REUTERS)

Kyiv region's air defence systems were deployed several times overnight to repel missiles and drones targeting the Ukrainian capital, the region's military administration said.

Reuters news agency reported at least three rounds of explosions overnight in Kyiv.

In the Kyiv region, which had struggled with blackouts after an onslaught targeting power facilities on Monday, five air alerts were called during the night.

The regional administration said air defences destroyed all the drones and missiles that Russia fired, but that falling debris set off forest fires.

On Monday, Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones, killing at least seven people and damaging energy infrastructure.

US President Joe Biden has condemned the "outrageous" attack.

Analysts at the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War, said in their note late on Monday that Moscow "likely lacks the defence-industrial capacity to sustain such massive strikes at a similar scale with regularity."

Several Russian military bloggers called the Moscow attacks an "act of retaliation" for Ukraine's surprising incursion into Russia's territory - the first such action since World War Two.

The Kremlin said on Monday there will be a response to Ukraine's action in Kursk, but three weeks into the incursion, Kyiv has claimed further advances.

Moscow says it keeps pummelling Ukraine troops there - but is still unable to push them out.

Police officers work at a site of a Russian missile strike (REUTERS)

The size of the Tuesday attacks and their full impact was not immediately known, but Ukraine's air force said it recorded the launch of several groups of drones and the take-off from Russian airfields of strategic Tu-85 strategic bombers and MiG-31 supersonic interceptor aircraft.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

The Kremlin denies targeting civilians in the war, which began when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Russian defence ministry said that its strikes on Monday hit "all designated targets" in Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure.

Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv and central and eastern regions of Ukraine were under air raid alerts for most of the night, starting at around 8pm on Monday.

Two civilians may still be under the rubble of the hotel in Kryvyi Rih and five were injured in the attack, Serhiy Lisak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region where Kryvyi Rih is located, said on Telegram.

Six shops, four high-rise buildings and eight cars were also damaged there, he added.

In Zaporizhzhia, two people were killed and four injured overnight, Ivan Fedorov, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, said on Telegram.

"Such are the consequences of the overnight attack by Shaheds on Zaporizhzhia," Fedorov said, referring to the Iranian-made kamikaze drones that Kyiv says Russia uses in its attacks.

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