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Ukraine said 15 of 18 cruise missiles were successfully shot
down, shielding the capital Kyiv and other major cities where
air raid sirens rang. The only reports of widespread damage were
in Pavlohrad, a railway hub behind the southern and eastern
fronts.
A Russian-installed official in occupied Zaporizhzhia region,
posting images from Pavlohrad of the huge blaze, said Russian
forces had struck military targets there.
Ukrainian officials also released images of a scorched
wasteland, and said an industrial enterprise was hit, which they
did not identify. Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk
region council, said the attack had damaged 19 apartment blocks,
25 houses, three schools, three kindergartens and several shops.
The 34 wounded included three children, he said.
The attacks came just three days after Russia killed 23
civilians with a missile that hit a high-rise apartment building
in the city of Uman, part of its first big countrywide volley of
air strikes in nearly two months.
Russia appears to have returned to its winter tactic of major
countrywide air strikes as Ukraine prepares to launch a
counteroffensive to retake occupied land in the south and east.
On Saturday, an apparent Ukrainian drone hit a fuel storage
depot in Sevastopol, base of the Russian navy in Crimea, which
Moscow seized in 2014. Kyiv said the blaze was part of its
preparations for its offensive.
After five months of a Russian assault that secured little new
territory despite the bloodiest ground combat of the war, Kyiv
is preparing to unleash its counterattack using hundreds of
armoured vehicles and tanks supplied by the West.
"Around 2:30 am (1130 GMT), the Russian invaders attacked
Ukraine from strategic aviation planes," Commander-in-Chief of
Ukraine's Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said.
The city administration for Kyiv said no civilian casualties or
damage were reported from the overnight air strikes in the
capital.
(Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly; Writing by Tom
BalmforthEditing by Peter Graff)
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