Russia fires 122 missiles and 36 drones in what Ukraine calls the most important aerial barrage of the battle

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched 122 missiles and a rating of drones towards Ukrainian targets, officers stated Friday, killing at the very least 20 civilians throughout the nation in what an air drive official stated was the most important aerial barrage of the battle.

The Ukrainian air drive intercepted a lot of the ballistic and cruise missiles and the Shahed-type drones in a single day, stated Ukraine’s army chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his official Telegram channel that it was “the most massive aerial attack” since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

According to the Ukrainian air drive, the earlier largest assault was in November 2022 when Russia launched 96 missiles towards Ukraine. This 12 months, the most important was 81 missiles on March 9, air drive data present.

Western officers and analysts lately warned that Russia had restricted its cruise missile strikes in current months in an obvious effort to construct up stockpiles for enormous strikes throughout the winter, hoping to interrupt the Ukrainians’ spirit.

Fighting alongside the entrance line is essentially slowed down by winter climate after Ukraine’s summer time counteroffensive did not make a big breakthrough alongside the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) line of contact.

Ukrainian officers have urged the nation’s Western allies to supply it with extra air defenses to guard itself towards aerial assaults like Friday’s one. Their appeals have come as indicators of battle fatigue pressure efforts to maintain assist in place.

At least 88 folks have been injured and an unknown quantity have been buried beneath rubble throughout the roughly 18-hour onslaught, Ukrainian officers stated. Among the buildings reported to be broken throughout Ukraine have been a maternity hospital, condominium blocks and colleges.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated the Kremlin’s forces used all kinds of weapons, together with ballistic and cruise missiles.

“Today, Russia used nearly every type of weapon in its arsenal,” Zelenskyy stated on social media platform X, previously Twitter.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat stated Russia “apparently launched everything they have,” apart from submarine-launched Kalibr missiles, within the assault.

The aerial assault that started Thursday and continued by way of the evening hit six cities, together with the capital, Kyiv, and different areas from east to west and north to south Ukraine, based on authorities.

Reports of deaths and injury got here in from throughout the nation.

Five folks have been killed and 20 injured within the japanese metropolis of Dnipro the place 4 maternity hospital sufferers have been rescued from a fireplace, officers stated.

In Odesa, on the southern coast, falling drone wreckage began a fireplace at a multi-story residential constructing, based on the regional head, Oleh Kiper. Two folks have been killed and 15, together with two youngsters, have been injured in the middle of the Odesa assault, he stated.

The mayor of the western metropolis of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, stated one individual was killed and eight injured and three colleges and a kindergarten have been broken in a drone assault within the area.

Several dozen missiles have been launched in the direction of Kyiv throughout the evening, with greater than 30 of them intercepted, stated Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv army administration. The assault began a fireplace at a warehouse within the capital’s Podil district the place 5 folks reportedly have been pulled from the rubble. Three folks have been killed within the capital.

In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov stated town was subjected to at the very least three waves of aerial assaults in a single day that included S-300 and Kh-21 missile launches. One individual was killed and at the very least 9 injured, officers stated.