Russian attacks on Ukraine kill at least 10 and injure dozens
KYIV, Ukraine, June 23, (AP): Russian drones and missiles killed at least 10 civilians in Ukraine in nighttime attacks, local officials said Monday, with seven deaths reported in the capital, Kyiv, where emergency crews raced to find people believed trapped under the rubble of a partially collapsed apartment building. Russia fired 352 drones and decoys overnight, as well as 11 ballistic missiles and five cruise missiles, Ukraine's air force said.
Air defenses intercepted or jammed 339 drones and 15 missiles before they could reach their targets, a statement said. The strikes came nearly a week after a combined Russian attack on Ukraine last Tuesday killed 28 people in Kyiv, 23 of them in a residential building that collapsed after sustaining a direct hit by a missile. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called that attack one of the biggest bombardments of the war, now in its fourth year.
Russian forces have for several months been trying to drive deeper into Ukraine as part of a renewed summer push along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, though the Institute for the Study of War said their progress has been limited. "Russian forces have failed to make significant gains during this period of intensified offensive operations, however due in part to the fact that Russian forces are largely relying on poorly trained infantry to make gains in the face of Ukraine's drone-based defense,' the Washington-based think tank said late Sunday.
At the same time, Russia has pounded civilian areas with long-range strikes in an apparent attempt to weaken public morale. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said preliminary data indicated that Russian forces used North Korean missiles in the Kyiv strike. He called Russia, North Korea and Iran, which has provided drones to Russia, a "coalition of murderers' and warned of a potential spread of the "terror' if their alliance continues.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine's defense and new ways to pressure Russia will be the two main topics in his visit to the United Kingdom on Monday. Drones and missiles hit residential areas, hospitals and sports infrastructure in numerous districts across Kyiv in the early hours of Monday, emergency services said. The most severe damage was in the Shevchenkivskyi district, where a section of a five-story apartment building collapsed.
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