The Russian air strikes early this Tuesday against important Ukrainian cities such as Dnipro and Kharkiv have caused at least 10 deaths and a hundred injured, according to local authorities, after several days of warning that Moscow was planning a large-scale offensive.
In Dnipro, in the southeast of the country, at least five people have been killed and 25 have been injured in an attack with missiles and drones, according to the regional governor, Oleksandr Hanzha, in a message published on Telegram, accompanied by images of destroyed residential buildings, burned vehicles and a damaged playground.
In the capital, kyiv, at least four people have been killed and 51 injured, including children, says Mayor Vitali Klitschko. The impact of a missile on a 24-storey residential block caused it to collapse, probably leaving people trapped under the rubble. The attacks also caused several fires, including one near a daycare center. Thousands of people flocked to the city’s subway in search of shelter.
In the northeastern region of Kharkiv, Russian drones and missiles have injured 10 people, including a child, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov on Telegram.
Air raid sirens sounded across much of the country early in the day, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated warnings about a possible large-scale Russian attack the previous day. “The alerts from the intelligence services about Russian attacks are still valid. It is a possible massive attack,” Zelensky said in a video speech released the day before.
Russia, for its part, also warned last week that it intended to launch “systematic attacks” against targets in kyiv linked to the Ukrainian military, as well as against decision-making centers, and urged foreigners to leave.
