UMAN, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones in Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 23 people, nearly all of them when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in a terrifying nighttime attack, authorities said. Three children were among the dead.
The missile strikes included the first against kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, in nearly two months, though there were no reports of targets being hit. The city government said Ukraine’s air force intercepted 11 cruise missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles over kyiv.
The attacks against the nine-story residential building in central Ukraine occurred in Uman, a city located about 215 kilometers (134 miles) south of kyiv. Twenty-one people were killed in that attack, according to the National Police of Ukraine. They included two 10-year-old boys and a toddler.
Another of the victims was a 75-year-old woman who lived in a neighboring building and suffered internal bleeding from the enormous shock wave of the explosion, according to emergency personnel present at the scene.
Ukrainian national police said 17 people were injured and three children were rescued from the rubble. Nine were hospitalized.
The bombardment was nowhere near the extensive front lines of the war or active combat zones in eastern Ukraine, where a war of attrition has been raging. Moscow has frequently launched long-range missile attacks during the 14 month waroften indiscriminately affecting civilian areas.
Ukrainian officials and analysts have alleged that such attacks are part of a deliberate intimidation strategy by the Kremlin.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the long-range cruise missiles launched overnight were aimed at places where Ukrainian reserve military units were staying before their deployment on the battlefield.
“The strike has achieved its goal. All designated facilities have been attacked,” said Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry. He did not name specific areas or residential buildings affected.
Survivors of the Uman attacks recounted terrifying moments when the missiles hit while it was still dark outside.
Halyna, a resident of the building, said she and her husband were covered in glass by the blast. They saw flames outside her window and got out, but Halyna first checked to see if her friend in a neighboring apartment was okay.
“I was calling her, calling her (on the phone), but she didn’t answer. I even called her doorbell, but she still didn’t answer,” she told The Associated Press. She used the spare keys to her friend’s apartment and went inside to check on her. He found her dead on the floor of her apartment.
Halyna declined to provide her last name for security reasons.
Another resident of the building, Olha Turina, told AP that glass from the explosion flew everywhere.
Turina, whose husband is fighting on the front lines, said one of her son’s classmates had gone missing.
“I don’t know where they are, I don’t know if they are alive,” he said. “I don’t know why we have to go through all this. We never bother anyone.”
Three body bags lay next to the building as smoke continued to billow hours after the attack. Soldiers, civilians and emergency teams searched for more victims among the rubble, while residents removed their belongings from the damaged building.
Rescuers took a woman, crying in shock, for help.
Yulia Norovkova, spokeswoman for emergency rescue teams at the scene, said local volunteers were helping nearly 150 emergency personnel. Two aid stations, including psychologists, were operating, she said.
A 31-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter were also killed in another attack in the eastern city of Dnipro, regional governor Serhii Lysak said. Four people were injured and a private home and a business were damaged.
The attacks came days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a “long and meaningful” phone call where Xi said his government will send a peace envoy to Ukraine and other nations.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday’s bombing showed that the Kremlin is not interested in a peace deal.
“Missile attacks killing innocent Ukrainians in their sleep, including a 2-year-old child, is Russia’s response to all peace initiatives,” he tweeted. “The way to peace is to drive Russia out of the Ukraine.”
Czech President Petr Pavel, on a visit to Ukraine, was unconvinced by the Kremlin’s earlier denials of responsibility for such bloodshed.
“The number of attacks against civilian targets leads to the only conclusion that it is intentional,” Pavel told Czech media. “It is a clear plan intended to cause chaos, horrors among the civilian population.”
Shortly after Moscow unleashed the bombardment, the Russian Defense Ministry posted a photo on Telegram showing a missile being fired and read: “Right on target.”
The message sparked outrage from Ukrainians on social media and from some officials, who saw it as gloating over the casualties.
“The Ministry of Homicide of the Russian Federation is happy that it hit a residential building with a rocket and killed civilians,” said Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential office.
In kyiv, intercepted missile or drone fragments damaged power lines and a road in a neighborhood. No casualties were reported.
In Ukrainka, a town about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Kiev, debris from downed missiles or drones left holes in the walls of some apartment buildings and a smashed pink stroller in the street.
“It seems like this nightmare has lasted for two years, but I still can’t wake up,” said Olena, 62, a local resident. She asked that her last name not be used, saying her son lived in a sensitive military zone.
Ukrainian officials said last week that they had taken delivery of US-made Patriot missilesproviding Kiev with a long-sought new shield against Russian airstrikes, but it was not known if the system was used on Friday.
The city’s anti-aircraft system was activated, according to the kyiv city administration. Air raid sirens began around 4 a.m. and the alert ended about two hours later.
The missile attack was the first in the capital since March 9. Air defenses have thwarted Russian drone strikes more recently.
The missiles were fired from aircraft operating in the Caspian Sea region, according to Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Overall, he said, Ukraine intercepted 21 of the 23 Kh-101 and Kh-555 type cruise missiles launched, as well as the two drones.
The war largely came to a halt over the winter, becoming a war of attrition as each side has shelled the other’s positions from a distance. Ukraine has been building its mechanized brigades with armor provided by its Western allies, which have also been training Ukrainian troops and sending ammunition, as kyiv contemplates a possible counteroffensive.
Meanwhile, the Moscow-appointed mayor of the Russian city of Donetsk, Alexei Kulemzin, said a Ukrainian rocket killed seven civilians in the city center on Friday. He said the victims died when a minibus was hit.
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Hanna Arhirova and David Rising reported from kyiv. Patrick Quinn contributed to this story from Bangkok.
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