Early on Monday, Russia launched its second significant missile barrage against Ukraine in recent days, damaging buildings and injuring at least 34 people in the eastern city of Pavlohrad but missing Kyiv, according to officials.
At at 3:45 a.m., air raid sirens started to play around the city, followed by the sound of explosions as missiles were shot down by Ukrainian defense systems.
In total, 18 cruise missiles were launched from the Caspian and Murmansk regions, and 15 of them were shot down, according to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv’s municipal government, claimed that some drones and all missiles fired against the city had been shot down. Although he didn’t go into further detail, he did say that more details would be made available later.
Russia launched its second significant missile volley towards Ukraine in recent days, according to Ukrainian officials.
Following the first attack on Kyiv in almost two months, more than 20 cruise missiles and two explosive drones were launched at Ukraine on Friday.
21 people, including three children, were killed in that strike when Russian missiles struck an apartment complex in Uman, a city located about 215 kilometers (135 miles) south of Kiev.
According to Serhii Lysak, the chief official in the area, a missile assault on Monday wounded 34 people, including five children, in Pavlohrad in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
The city was targeted by seven missiles, of which “some were intercepted,” but others caused damage to 19 apartment buildings, 25 homes, six schools, and five shops in a residential district and ignited a fire at an industrial complex, according to the mayor.
According to him, missiles also struck three other locations in the neighborhood, causing damage to a school and residential buildings.
Throughout the 14-month war, Moscow has launched numerous long-range missile attacks, frequently hitting civilian areas without warning.
Recent American-made Patriot missile deliveries to Ukraine have boosted its anti-missile systems, but it was unclear whether any of them were used to try to thwart the strike on Monday morning.
As part of its preparations for an anticipated counteroffensive this spring, Ukraine has been bolstering its mechanized brigades with equipment provided by its Western partners, who have also been supplying Ukrainian forces with training and munitions.
As Ukraine prepares for its counteroffensive, two Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian oil depot in Crimea on Saturday. This was the most recent attack on the annexed peninsula.
In a recent interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that his nation’s planned counteroffensive would aim to recapture the peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
