Russian missiles are bombarding several Ukrainian regions, officials say

Russia launched a large-scale airstrike on Ukraine on Monday morning. Ukrainian officials said thisbombardment of several regions with rockets, killing at least two people, injuring at least 33 others and causing heavy damage to residential buildings and industrial sites.

From about 6 a.m., air strikes rang out across the country after the Ukrainian air force reported the launch of nearly two dozen Russian fighter jets, which then fired cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles, in line with Moscow’s strategy to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses with different waves of different types of missiles. types of air weapons.

Ihor Klymenko, the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, said the attack had targeted regions across the country, from Khmelnytskyi in the west to Kharkov in the northeast, and that private homes were badly damaged and a shopping center destroyed. He said rescue workers were at the scene of the strikes trying to pull people out from under the rubble.

While the targets of the attack and the extent of the damage were not immediately clear, Monday’s airstrike came as Russia has stepped up its airstrikes on Ukraine in recent days in what appears to be a strategy to target critical industrial and military infrastructure to destroy. and undermine Ukrainian morale.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that Russia had launched some 300 missiles and more than 200 attack drones against Ukraine in a series of attacks around the new year. The according to the United Nations It was reported on Saturday that 120 civilians have been killed and nearly 480 others injured across Ukraine since December 29.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city near the border with Russia, rockets hit “the city’s industrial facilities,” causing a fire and wounding at least one woman. said Mayor Ihor Terechov.

The greatest damage appeared to be caused in the southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, where gas stations, administrative and residential buildings, as well as private homes, were hit in strikes that killed a 62-year-old woman and injured at least 24 people. according to Serhii Lysak, the regional governor. Another woman was killed in the Kharkov region, authorities there said.

Unlike previous attacks, the Ukrainian capital Kiev was not targeted on Monday. That may be because the city is well protected by powerful air defense systems, including American-designed Patriot batteries, capable of shooting down most incoming missiles.

But Ukraine’s lack of air defense systems means the country must juggle resources between the front line and cities far from the fighting. As a result, some towns, such as Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was targeted on Monday, are less well defended.