By HANNA ARHIROVA, SAMYA KULLAB and VASILISA STEPANENKO Associated Press
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Kyiv early Friday, killing six people, leaving gaping holes in apartment buildings and starting fires as the sound of explosions boomed across the city and lit up the night sky. A pregnant woman was among at least 35 people wounded, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russia used at least 430 drones and 18 missiles in the nighttime attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Russia has waged a devastating aerial campaign against Ukraine since its all-out invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts this year to stop the fighting have so far come to nothing.
Friday’s aerial assault, which also targeted Odesa in the south and Kharkiv in the northeast, was mostly aimed at Kyiv, where drones and missiles smashed into high-rise apartment blocks, according to Zelenskyy.
It was “a specially calculated attack to cause as much harm as possible to people and civilians,” he said in a post on Telegram.
Moscow denies targeting civilian areas, with the Russian Defense Ministry saying Friday it carried out an overnight strike on Ukraine’s “military-industrial and energy facilities.” Ukrainian officials scoff at those claims, showing repeated damage to homes and public buildings.
The attack was the biggest on Kyiv in almost three weeks. Most recent Russian aerial attacks have aimed at electricity infrastructure around the country ahead of the bitter winter months.
Ukraine used its American-made Patriot air defense systems to repel the attack and shot down 14 missiles, Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian leader has pleaded with foreign supporters to send more of the sophisticated systems.
Top European defense officials meeting in Berlin on Friday vowed to keep up their support for Ukraine. Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal joined the meeting remotely.
The Azerbaijan Embassy in Kyiv was damaged by debris from an Iskander missile — a development that Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said was “unacceptable.” Azerbaijan is a key transport corridor for Russia’s trade with Iran and other partners in the Middle East.
In the Odesa region, Russian drones struck a busy street on market day in Chornomorsk, killing two people and wounding 11 others, including a 19-month-old girl, regional military administration chief Oleh Kiper said.
‘My hair was on fire’
Kyiv residents told of harrowing escapes and near misses in the dead of night.
Mariia Kalchenko said it was a miracle she survived after her building was hit.
“I didn’t hear anything, I just realized that my hair was on fire,” the 46-year-old volunteer rescue dog handler told The Associated Press.
She turned on her flashlight and saw that her dog had moved away in fright. “I turned around and saw that there was no wall, and there was a neighbor’s apartment, the neighbor was screaming, there was no door, and the flames were going from the front door into the apartment,” she said.
Oleh Hudyma, 59, said he became aware of the attack and intended to go to a bomb shelter but she wasn’t quick enough.
“I got up, got dressed, went out, and there was an explosion. I couldn’t hear the (drone) engine running, just an explosion, flames, everything flew,” he said. “I was in the kitchen and just fell to the floor.”
Iryna Synyavska, 62, said three people were killed in two apartments next to hers.
“My neighbor and his father were killed by the ceiling that collapsed. In the next door (apartment), an elderly woman lived there, she was over 80,” Synyavska said. “Her daughter was visiting her. Her body was only just recovered because the walls fell down.”
Eight of the capital’s 10 districts reported damage. In the wider Kyiv region, Russian strikes damaged critical infrastructure, the head of the regional military administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, said.
Russia accuses Ukraine of hitting civilian sites
Ukraine has responded by launching its own domestically developed drones and missiles against targets on Russian soil, especially oil refineries and depots that provide Moscow with income and manufacturing plants that supply the armed forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that its air defense forces shot down 216 Ukrainian drones overnight over a number of Russian regions, including the annexed Crimea. It did not mention missiles.
However, Zelenskyy said Ukraine used a modification of domestically produced Neptune missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of hitting civilian facilities and claimed the overnight strike on Kyiv came in response to that.
Over 60 Ukrainian drones were intercepted over the southern Krasnodar region that borders Crimea, according to the Defense Ministry. A total of 45 drones were destroyed over the Saratov region deeper inside Russia, while another 19 were shot down over Crimea.
Attack on Russia’s Novorossiysk port
In Novorossiysk, a port city in the Krasnodar region, an attack damaged an oil depot at the Sheskharis transshipment complex, as well as unidentified “coastal structures,” local authorities said.
A source in Ukraine’s Security Service confirmed the Novorossiysk attack to The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Novorossiysk is the second biggest port in Russia for oil exports, the source said, adding that the attack damaged oil-loading stands at the piers, pipeline infrastructure and the units, sparking a large fire.
Ukraine also struck the positions of a S-300/S-400 air defense system in Novorossiysk, the source said.
Falling drone debris also damaged a civilian vessel in the port, and three crew members were hospitalized with injuries, Russian officials said. Several residential buildings were also damaged, and a man from one of those buildings was hospitalized with injuries, officials said.
In the Saratov region, Gov. Roman Busargin said that the attack damage unspecified “civilian infrastructure.” Unconfirmed media reports said that an oil refinery was hit.
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Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine