Russia fired a barrage of cruise missiles at targets in Ukraine on Friday morning after a nearly 80-day pause, Ukrainian officials said.
The air raid in Kyiv lasted almost two hours but all missiles heading towards the Ukrainian capital were destroyed by air defenses, according to Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, reports CNN.
Some homes were damaged in Kyiv as a result of falling debris from “downed enemy targets,” the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said.
But a missile that hit the city of Pavlohrad in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region killed one and injured four others, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
In the eastern Kharkiv region, one person was killed and several others injured in overnight strikes, Klymenko said. A five-story residential building was damaged in Kupiansk district, while at least seven apartment buildings and more than 20 cars were damaged in the city of Kharkiv.
Russia struck Kharkiv with six S-300 missiles, the head of Kharkiv region’s military administration Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office said it had launched an investigation into the strike.
The barrage of 19 missiles across Ukraine was the first such attack in more than two months, as Western intelligence assessments warned Russia is likely to expand its bombardment of civilian infrastructure during the winter.
Bd-pratidin Englisgh/Lutful Hoque
