Russia on Tuesday launched one of its largest air raids on Ukraine since the start of the three-year-old war, specifically targeting civilian infrastructure in Kyiv and port city of Odessa.
Ukraine’s Air Defence forces reported on Tuesday morning that they intercepted 284 out of 322 air targets launched by Russia. Moscow used Iranian-made Shaheed drones, various types of decoy drones, two KN-23 ballistic missiles, and five Iskander-K cruise missiles in the attack. Authorities in capital Kyiv issued a warning to residents o early morning, saying drones were heading towards the city and urged them to stay in bomb shelters.
Port city of Odessa in south of Ukraine was also hit overnight, when two people were killed and nine others were injured in the attack. A maternity hospital in the city was damaged, an emergency medical station and an administrative buildings were destroyed in the attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the attack as “one of the largest attacks on Kyiv”, adding that Odessa, Dnipro region, and Chernihiv region were also targeted. Zeleskiy said most of the over 300 drones were Iranian-made Shaheeds, while two of the seven missiles were North Korean-made ballistic missiles. Stressing that Moscow’s missile and drone strikes “ drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace”, the Ukrainian leader called for pressure on Russia. “It is vital that the response to this and other similar Russian attacks is not silence from the world, but concrete action," Zelenskiy said.
The overnight attack follows Russia’s largest drone strike on Ukraine on Monday when Russia fired 479 drones in an overnight aerial raid, in what became the largest drone strike Moscow launched in a single day. Russia said the latest attacks were in response to Ukraine’s massive Spiderweb operation that struck air bases deep in Russian territory.
