by Russian missiles and drones struck kyiv on Tuesday morning, officials said, in a large-scale attack on the Ukrainian capital and other cities, the day after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia vowed to retaliate for a Ukrainian attack on a Russian city.
He The Ukrainian Air Force said The bombing involved some of Russia’s most powerful weapons, including hypersonic missiles that fly at several times the speed of sound. Air raid alerts sounded constantly in kyiv on Tuesday morning, as wave after wave of missiles rained down.
One person in the city, an elderly woman, was killed in the attack and 43 people were injured, including two children, according to Vitali Klitschko, the city’s mayor. Two more people were killed in the Fastiv region near kyiv, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a post on Telegram.
Loud explosions rocked the capital as its air defense systems attempted to shoot down the missiles. Huge columns of black and white smoke rose throughout the city, piercing the gray morning sky, while several buildings were hit.
Mr. Klitschko said that the debris The intercepted attacks caused fires in several areas and cut power to several residential buildings and other facilities. Mr. Klitschko aggregate that a large warehouse had caught fire and that at least 16 people had been injured after the impact of a high-rise building.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and close to the Russian border, also suffered a large-scale missile attack. according to Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the regional military administration there. At least one person died there and 41 were injured, he said.
The strikes were launched hours after Putin vowed to respond to what Moscow said were Ukrainian attacks on Saturday that killed 24 people in the Russian city of Belgorod. “For our part, we will intensify the attacks,” Putin said Monday.
The attack on Belgorod, according to a Ukrainian official, was in response to a Russian missile bombardment the day before, one of the largest airstrikes in the nearly two years of war. That attack on Friday killed at least 39 people, injured about 160 more and hit critical industrial and military infrastructure, as well as hospitals and schools, Ukrainian authorities said.
Ukrainian authorities had warned for months that Russia would likely strike Ukrainian cities and attack its infrastructure once the weather turned cold, in a repeat of last year’s winter campaign against the energy grid. Those attacks plunged kyiv into cold and darkness during the winter months.
It was not immediately clear what exactly the Russian military was specifically trying to attack on Tuesday. But in central Kiev, white smoke rose near a thermal plant that had been attacked in the past, and local authorities reported damage to a water supply system in one neighborhood.
In kyiv, most of the victims occurred in a nine-story residential building that was partially destroyed and caught fire. Residents of the building could be seen leaving the neighborhood Tuesday morning, bags in hand, stepping over piles of debris and large puddles caused by damage to water pumps.
A man tried to run past a line of police officers, shouting that his wife was still in the building, possibly under the rubble. On a nearby street, two people ran after an ambulance shouting that a woman needed urgent care. After the ambulance stopped, they helped a woman inside.
“My God, my God,” the woman said before entering the ambulance.
Walking down the stairs of the residential building, which were covered in debris and glass fragments, Lidiia Dudchenko, 71, said: “There was an explosion and it was a miracle that we survived. “She had never experienced anything so terrible,” she added.
On each of the nine floors, the same scene was visible over and over again: doors broken by the explosion and remains of furniture all over the floor. Police officers entered the apartments trying to determine if any residents had been trapped under the rubble.
On one floor, pillows and blankets were placed in a hallway, covered in debris. Ukrainians often take shelter in the hallway of their homes during airstrikes, using the walls to protect themselves from the explosions.
In another apartment, Yevhen Pesiura, 40, was packing clothes and precious belongings into a suitcase, shards of glass crunching under his feet. He said he was with his wife and two daughters when the building was hit.
“I can’t live there anymore,” he said, pointing to his destroyed apartment.
Over the past year, Ukraine has received powerful air defense systems from its allies, including Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries, which have proven successful in repelling many Russian attacks.
Although Ukraine is well supplied with Western weapons, the surface-to-air missiles needed to intercept Russian missiles are in short supply. And with a front line more than 600 miles long, important air defenses need to be evenly distributed to protect Ukrainian troops from Russian helicopters and attack planes.
This has left Ukrainian forces in a difficult position as they juggle resources, trying to ensure that the front line and major cities such as kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Lviv have sufficient supplies for their defences.
Ukrainian officials warned in the fall that Russia had stockpiled more than 800 high-precision weapons in preparation for massive winter attacks.
In Friday’s attack, Russian missiles penetrated Ukraine’s air defenses thanks to a complex bombardment that included hypersonic, ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones. Tuesday morning’s deluge appears to have repeated that strategy, according to figures released by the Ukrainian Air Force.
