Russia launches hypersonic missiles on major Ukrainian cities: five dead and a giant blackout in Kiev

The Russian military fired hypersonic missiles at Ukraine’s two largest cities on Tuesday, leaving at least five dead and more than 90 injured. around 250,000 people without electricity in the capital, Kiev, authorities said, as the war nears its second anniversary.

Two people died in northern Kiev, two on the outskirts of the capital and one in the eastern city of Kharkov, authorities said, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 92 were injured and denounced a “terrorist campaign” by Russia.

The Ukrainian army said this Russia launched 99 missilesincluding Kinzhal hypersonics, which fly at 10 times the speed of sound, against Kiev and Kharkov, adding that 72 of them were shot down by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses.

The new attacks come after the threat from Russian President Vladimir Putin “intensify” the offensive in Ukraine in retaliation for the unprecedented bombing of the Russian city of Belgorod by an unprecedented force that left 25 dead and 109 injured on Saturday.

Early in the morning air raid sirens sounded in Kiev. Shortly after they heard 10 powerful explosions which shook buildings in the city center, journalists at the scene said.

A building in the Solomianski neighborhood, near the center, was hit by a missile, causing a fire, the capital’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

In total “27 people were hospitalized,” he added.

“Massive bombings”

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry reported “massive shelling” on Telegram and said “residential buildings, warehouses and critical infrastructure” had been hit.

“About 260,000 people” remained without electricity in “several neighborhoods” of Kiev, the Energy Ministry said, and more than 20,000 in Kharkov province.

National operator Ukrenergo has complained about Telegram’s “damage” to its networks.

Ukraine’s second city, Kharkov, not far from the Russian border, was the target of “at least four attacks”, which killed a 91-year-old woman, according to the region’s governor, Oleg Sinegubov.

The city’s mayor, Igor Terekhov, also reported that “45 people were injured, including five children aged between 6 and 13.”

According to regional authorities, multi-storey apartment buildings and civil infrastructure were damaged in the city center.

“Give weapons to Ukraine!”, the secretary general of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council, Oleksii Danilov, implored on Telegram.

Kiev had difficulties in recent weeks in obtaining more military aid from its Western allies.

Nearly two years after their invasion began, on February 24, 2022, It appears that Russia is stepping up its airstrikes again.

Last Friday, a series of missile attacks launched by Russia against Ukraine left around 40 people dead. The next day 25 people were killed in a Ukrainian bombing of the Russian city of Belgorod, near the border.

In response, Putin vowed to step up his offensive against his neighbor.

“We will intensify our attacks, no crime against civilians will go unpunished, that’s for sure,” the Russian president said during a visit to the military hospital.

“We are using precision weapons attack decision-making centers, places where soldiers and mercenaries gather, other such centers and, above all, military installations,” he said, calling the Ukrainian bombing of Belgorod a “terrorist act.”

However, Putin considered that Ukraine was “not an enemy” in itself and accused the West of using the Kiev authorities to “solve its own problems” with Russia.

Faced with this escalation, Poland, Ukraine’s neighbor, announced that it had taken off four of its F-16 fighters in the direction of the east of the country to “ensure the security” of its airspace.

Source: AFP