At least 22 killed in heavy Russian attack on Ukrainian cities

“SOME KIND OF APOCALYPSE” 

Moscow’s war in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of people, forced much of the population out of their homes and devastated cities, towns and villages. Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukraine. 

Ukraine has also hit civilian targets during attacks on Russia or Russian-occupied areas, though on a much smaller scale. Both sides deny targeting civilians. 

Photographs on Tuesday showed large explosions and smoke billowing over high-rise buildings in Kyiv, where officials said six people were killed and over 80 wounded.

“We couldn’t understand what was happening – some kind of apocalypse?” Olha Mudra, her face and clothes covered in dust, said at the site of one strike, accompanied by her six-year-old daughter Natalia.

Sixteen people were killed overnight, including two young boys, in the southeastern city of Dnipro, local officials said. Russia attacked the city again later on Tuesday, and at least two more people were injured. 

In Kyiv, at least nine high-rise buildings, a kindergarten, a clinic, offices and administrative buildings were damaged, and the attack temporarily cut power to 140,000 residents, power company DTEK said.

More than 40,000 took shelter in the Kyiv subway system – the biggest number in recent years. Some carried pets, belongings and mattresses.