Vladimir Putin’s forces battered Kyiv overnight with a seven-hour bombardment of missiles and drones with images of massive explosions as people ran to underground metro shelters
Apocalyptic images of explosions and fires were seen during a seven hour missile and drone bombardment on Kyiv overnight.
Vladimir Putin unleashed new terror on the Ukrainian capital with residents forced to take shelter in underground metro stations. It comes amid failed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the now three-year-old war and a senior hardline Moscow military figure insisted Putin’s aim is to unite Russia, Ukraine and Belarus into a single state. The debris of intercepted missiles and drones fell in at least four city districts of the Ukrainian capital early on Saturday, acting head of Kyiv military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, wrote on Telegram.
Russia also attacked military facilities in Dnipro and Poltava regions amid claims the Kremlin deployed more deadly £2 million Iskander-M missiles – and their North Korean equivalents – than ever before.
Ukraine reported strikes by 14 Russian Iskander-M and Pyongyang lookalike KN-23 ballistic missiles as well as 250 drones, some of which were decoy dummies. Half the drones were intercepted, as were six missiles, according to the Ukrainian armed forces.
In Kyiv and the surrounding region at least ten people were wounded in the intense Russian strikes. Reports from Moscow claimed that Ukrainian drone-making facilities around the Antonov aircraft-making plant in Kyiv had been hit.
The Kyiv Post reported “a massive missile and drone attack on sleeping civilians in Kyiv overnight”. In Kharkiv region the Putin slaughter – despite supposed engagement with peace talks – continued with four Ukrainians killed, and seven injured in Russian attacks.
The dead were a woman, 78, two men, both 60, and another woman, 33. Earlier port facilities were destroyed in Odesa in a major ballistic missile attack causing death and injuries. The onslaught was seen as revenge for more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones fired at Russia in recent days, which wrought havoc with airports in Moscow and other cities.
Russia reported at least 94 Ukrainians shot down overnight. But it is known that Kyiv drones hit the NAK AZOT plant, a major Russian chemical enterprise at Novomoskovsk in Tula region. The plant makes ammonium nitrate and nitric acid, both crucial to the manufacture of Russian explosives.
For the second night in a row, Ukraine also successfully attacked the Energia plant in Yelets, Lipeetsk region, which makes chemical power sources for Russian drones, nuclear-capable Bulava missiles, as well as Iskanders and hypersonic Kinzhals.
Russian MP and war hawk Lt-Gen Viktor Sobolev, 75, a member of the parliament’s defence committee, insisted Putin’s military aim is to unite Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in a single state.
“The solution, the complete solution to these goals of the special military operation, is undoubtedly the creation of a united union state of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus,” he said. “The restoration of the Russian world within its natural borders. We are all Russian.”
He made historical connections which are seen as wrong-headed and offensive by Ukraine. “Kyiv is the mother of Russian cities,” he said. “Prince Vladimir is Russian, Yuri Dolgoruky is Russian. Yaroslav the Wise is Russian, and so on…. So we must, of course, protect our Russian world.”