2023-05-01 09:12:02
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched its second round of missiles at Ukraine in a few days on Monday, damaging buildings and injuring at least 34 people in the eastern city of Pavlohrad but missing Kiev, authorities said.
Air raid sirens began wailing in the capital at around 3:45 a.m., followed by the sound of explosions as the missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian defensive systems.
In total, 18 cruise missiles were launched from the Murmansk region and the Caspian Sea area, of which 15 were intercepted, said the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
The head of the municipal administration in kyiv, Serhii Popko, indicated that all the missiles launched into the city had been shot down, as well as several drones. He did not elaborate, though he said more information would be available later.
The attacks came following Russia launched more than 20 cruise missiles and two explosive drones into Ukraine on Friday, the largest round aimed at kyiv in nearly two months.
In that attack, Russian missiles hit an apartment building in Uman, a city regarding 215 kilometers (135 miles) south of kyiv, killing 21 people, three of them children.
In Monday’s attack, missiles struck Pavlohrad in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, injuring 34 people, including five children, according to Serhii Lysak, head of the regional government.
Seven missiles hit the city and “some were intercepted,” while others hit an industrial compound where a fire broke out, as well as a residential neighborhood where 19 apartment buildings, 25 houses, six schools and five businesses were damaged, it added.
The missiles also hit three other areas in the region, damaging residential buildings and a school, it said.
Moscow has made frequent long-range missile strikes in the 14-month war, often hitting civilian areas indiscriminately.
Ukraine has recently received US-made Patriot missiles that have improved its missile defenses, although it was not clear if any of them had been used to try to respond to Monday morning’s attack.
Ukraine is also working to bolster its mechanized brigades with armor provided by its Western allies, which have also trained Ukrainian troops and sent ammunition as kyiv prepares a counteroffensive expected this spring.
Two Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian fuel depot in Crimea on Saturday, a new attack on the annexed peninsula before the counteroffensive.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview last week that his country would try to reclaim the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 in the next counteroffensive.
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