KYIV — Russia pounded Ukraine in one of its biggest overnight aerial assaults, launching 90 missiles and 600 attack drones, including an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile. The barrage killed at least two people in Kyiv, which faced the worst of the attack.
Explosions rang out in the capital throughout the night, as Moscow’s forces sent waves of ballistic and cruise missiles and attack drones, causing numerous fires, including in a business center and central market.
The overnight attack also caused extensive damage throughout the city and injured more than 70 people, in addition to the two killed, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
The buildings of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry and Cabinet of Ministers also suffered slight damage, officials wrote on social media. In total, four people were killed and more than 80 injured across the country, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X.
“The most strikes were in Kyiv, and Kyiv itself was the main target of this Russian attack,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement posted Sunday morning. He said the strikes hit a water supply facility, burned down a market and damaged dozens of residential buildings and several schools.
Ukraine’s Air Force wrote on Telegram that most of the missiles and drones were shot down or missed their targets, but that 16 missiles and 51 drones struck 54 locations, and debris hit 23 locations.
In a statement Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted “facilities of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, military infrastructure, as well as command posts of the Ground Forces High Command, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, and other command posts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
“No strikes were planned or carried out against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine,” the ministry said.
It also confirmed that it launched an Oreshnik missile — the third time Moscow has used the weapon against Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion more than four years ago.
Zelensky said the missile targeted the central Ukrainian city of Bila Tserkva, some 50 miles south of Kyiv. The Oreshnik is highly destructive and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
The assault took place as U.S.-brokered peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow have stalled. On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told journalists that the negotiations were “not fruitful” and that Washington was “not interested in getting involved in an endless cycle of meetings that lead to nothing.”
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, and the Defense Ministry said that the attack was in response to recent Ukrainian strikes that caused civilian casualties. They did not provide details.
On Friday, Russian officials said that a Ukrainian attack struck a student dormitory in Starobilsk, in Russian-controlled Luhansk, killing 21 people. Ukraine’s military said it struck a drone command unit and denied targeting a civilian facility.
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed retaliation.
In a social media post Sunday, Medvedev said that Ukraine’s attack triggered “massive strikes against institutions located in Kyiv.”
“We must strike — just as we did today, and with even greater force,” Medvedev wrote. “After all, the ruins and gray ash left in the wake of strikes on their capital’s symbols serve to demoralize the enemy just as effectively as the loss of a battle standard.”
On Sunday, European Union foreign policy head Kaja Kallas argued that Russia’s attack was not in response to the reported civilian casualties, but instead because Kremlin forces had “hit a dead-end on the battlefield.”
Moscow terrorized Ukraine “with deliberate strikes on city centers,” she wrote on X, calling the assaults “abhorrent acts of terror meant to kill as many civilians as possible.”
She also wrote that Moscow’s use of the Oreshnik was “a political scare-tactic and reckless nuclear-brinkmanship,” and said that E.U. foreign ministers would meet next week to “discuss how to dial up the international pressure on Russia.”
Catherine Belton reported from London. Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report from Riga, Latvia.
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