Russia launches biggest aerial barrage yet, kills 30 civilians
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones against Ukrainian targets, officials said Friday, killing at least 30 civilians across the country in what an air force official called the biggest aerial barrage of the war.
At least 144 people were injured and an unknown number were buried under rubble during the roughly 18-hour onslaught, Ukrainian officials said. A maternity hospital, apartment blocks and schools were among the buildings reported damaged across Ukraine.
In the capital, Kyiv, bro- an apparent effort to build ken glass and mangled metal up stockpiles for massive littered city streets. Air raid strikes during the winter, and emergency service hoping to break the Ukraisirens wailed as plumes of nians’ spirit. smoke drifted into a bright The result was “the most blue sky. massive aerial attack” since
Kateryna Ivanivna, a Russia’s full-scale invasion 72-year-old Kyiv resident, in February 2022, Air Force said she threw herself to commander Mykola Olesh- the ground when a missile chuk wrote on his official struck. Telegram channel. It topped
“There was an explosion, the previous biggest assault, then flames,” she said. “I cov- in November 2022 when ered my head and got down Russia launched 96 misin the street. Then I ran into siles, and this year’s big- the subway station.” gest, with 81 missiles on
Meanwhile, in Poland, March 9, according to air authorities said that what force records. apparently was a Russian Fighting along the front missile entered the coun- line is largely bogged down try’s airspace Friday morn- by winter weather after ing from the direction of Ukraine’s summer coun- Ukraine and then vanished teroffensive failed to make off radars. a significant breakthrough
In the attack on Ukraine, along the roughly 620-mile the air force intercepted line of contact. most of the ballistic and Ukrainian officials have cruise missiles and the Sha- urged the country’s West- hed-type drones overnight, ern allies to provide it with said Ukraine’s military chief, more air defenses. Their Valerii Zaluzhnyi. appeals have come as signs
Western officials and ana- of war fatigue strain efforts lysts had recently warned to keep support in place. that Russia limited its cruise British Prime Minister missile strikes for months in Rishi Sunak said the attack should stir the world to fur- ther action in support of Ukraine.
“These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show (Russian President Vladi- mir) Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of erad- icating freedom and democ- racy,” Sunak said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “We must continue to stand with Ukraine — for as long as it takes.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minis- ter Dmytro Kuleba said the scale of the attack should wake people up to Ukraine’s continuing needs.
“Today, millions of Ukrai- nians awoke to the loud sound of explosions,” he wrote on X. “I wish those sounds of explosions in Ukraine could be heard all around the world. In all major capitals, headquar- ters, and parliaments, which are currently debating fur- ther support for Ukraine.”
In Kyiv, the bombardment damaged a subway station that lies across the street from a factory belonging to the Artem company, which produces components for various military-grade missiles. Officials did not say whether the factory was directly hit.
Overall, the attack hit six cities, and reports of deaths and damage came in from across the country. Several dozen missiles were launched towards Kyiv, with more than 30 intercepted, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration. Eight people were killed there, officials said.
In Boyarka, near Kyiv, the debris of a shot-down drone fell on a home and started a fire. Andrii Korobka, 47, said his mother was sleeping next to the room where the wreckage landed and was taken to hospital suffering from shock.
“The war goes on, and it can happen to any house, even if you think yours will never be affected,” Korobka said.
Tetiana Sakhnenko lives next door and said neighbors ran with buckets of water to put out the blaze, but it spread quickly. “It’s so scary,” she said.
In the eastern city of Dnipro, four maternity hospital patients were rescued from a fire, five people were killed and 20 injured, officials said.
In Odesa, on the southern coast, falling drone wreckage started a fire at a multistory residential building, according to the regional head, Oleh Kiper. Two people were killed and 15, including two children, were injured, he said.
The mayor of the western city of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, said one person was killed there, with three schools and a kindergarten damaged in a drone attack. Local emergency services said 30 people were injured.