KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles and drones pounded Kyiv and a dozen other Ukrainian regions overnight into Wednesday, killing at least 21 civilians, including four children, and wounding around 60, Ukrainian officials said, according to the Associated Press. BBC News and The Guardian also reported on the attack.
The deadliest strike destroyed a five-story apartment block in Pryluky, in the northern Chernihiv region. Authorities said 15 people were killed there, including four children, and about 50 were wounded, AP reported, as rescuers dug through the rubble. Two people were killed in Kyiv, and deaths were also reported in Kremenchuk and Oleksandriia, with extensive damage in Dnipro.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia fired 70 missiles and called the Pryluky strike a “birthday ‘gift’” for Vladimir Putin, who turns 74 on Wednesday. “The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively,” he said, renewing his appeal for air defense: “Air defence packages for us right now are a vital necessity.” The Guardian said the barrage also included 46 jet-powered drones, and that Ukraine’s air force reported downing just over 80 percent of them. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russian generals had given Putin his favorite present: “war crimes.”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine had struck two oil facilities and a training ground in Russia’s Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions in the past 24 hours. Russian officials said naval drones hit a Liberian-flagged tanker off Sochi and its crew was rescued. Separately, Bulgaria called off the search for the missing crew of a cargo ship sunk by a drone in its Black Sea economic zone. Moscow had not commented on the overnight strikes, BBC News reported.
Sources: Associated Press, BBC News, The Guardian
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