Russia Kills 4 in Massive Ukraine Attack After Vowing Retaliation

Russia pounded Kyiv with a massive missile and drone attack that killed four people, authorities said Sunday, after President Vladimir Putin threatened retaliation for strikes in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. Multiple rounds of loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital throughout the early hours of the morning, AFP journalists reported, in a barrage the air force said involved 600 drones and 90 missiles. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people had been killed in the capital and

Air defenses intercepted 549 of the drones and 55 missiles, the air force said. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russians had fired a nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile in the barrage. “Three Russian missiles against a water supply facility, a market burnt down, dozens of residential buildings damaged, several ordinary schools, and he [Putin] launched his ‘Oreshnik’ against Bila Tserkva [in central Ukraine],” Zelensky said on Telegram. Russia confirmed it had launched the Oreshnik at Ukraine. “In response to Ukraine's terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure on Russian territory, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a massive strike using Oreshnik ballistic missiles, Iskander air-launched ballistic missiles, Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missiles and Tsirkon cruise missiles,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The blasts in the capital caused a residential building near the government district to shake, while dozens of people took shelter in an underground metro station in the city center, AFP reporters said. Residents were instructed to stay in shelters, as city officials warned fires had broken out. Klitschko said damage had been recorded in every district of Kyiv, adding that a strike on a school had sparked a fire and another on a business centre led to people being trapped in a shelter. Ukrainian authorities said Russian strikes had also wounded 12 people in the Kharkiv region, 11 in the Cherkasy region and seven in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine had been expecting a major attack after its own forces launched a drone barrage on Starobilsk, in the Russian-occupied east of the country, which Moscow said hit a college dormitory and killed at least 18 people. Launched overnight on Thursday to Friday, the drone salvo — one of Ukraine's deadliest such strikes in months — also wounded 42 in the city, located in the occupied Luhansk region, trapping people beneath the debris. Ukraine denied targeting civilians, saying it had hit a Russian drone unit stationed in the area.

Key points

• Air defenses intercepted 549 of the drones and 55 missiles, the air force said.
• Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russians had fired a nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile in the barrage.
• “Three Russian missiles against a water supply facility, a market burnt down, dozens of residential buildings damaged, several ordinary schools, and he [Putin] launched his ‘Oreshnik’ against Bila…
• Russia confirmed it had launched the Oreshnik at Ukraine.
• “In response to Ukraine's terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure on Russian territory, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a massive strike using Oreshnik ballistic missile…