Russian Forces Launch 73 Missiles, 656 Drones, Killing At Least 22 in Kyiv and Dnipro

Russian forces launched 73 missiles and 656 drones against Ukraine overnight, killing at least 22 civilians and wounding dozens more, according to Ukrainian authorities cited by PBS and Al Jazeera.

“Russia launches 'horrific' drone, missile strikes on Ukraine, killing 22: Officials Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones”

ABC News

In Kyiv and Dnipro, the attack killed 16 people in Dnipro and six in Kyiv, while Ukrainian air defenses destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 drones, PBS reported.

ABC News

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes were “an explicit statement by Russia: If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those strikes will continue,” as he appealed for more support, including air defense.

The PBS report also described residents sheltering as explosions reverberated across cities, and it said the attack stretched past dawn with emergency rescue crews pulling bodies from wreckage in Dnipro.

Al Jazeera reported that Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said six people were killed in the capital and dozens of others, including two children, were injured in the “mass enemy attack,” while Governor Oleksandr Ganzha said at least 16 people were killed in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Zelenskyy used the attack to press for military help, writing that “Europe needs its own anti-ballistic defence so that this war can finally be brought to an end,” and he said assistance from the United States in supplying missiles for Patriot systems was “absolutely necessary,” according to ABC News and the Guardian.

ABC News quoted Zelenskyy saying the attack constituted “a completely transparent statement from Russia: if Ukraine is not protected from ballistic and other missile strikes, these attacks will continue.”

Al Jazeera

The Guardian reported that Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia’s strikes showed Vladimir Putin was “running out of options,” and it quoted Sybiha saying, “Putin is a war criminal and loser who has no cards except terror.”

In Kyiv, NBC News said more than 41,000 people flooded into the Kyiv subway system seeking shelter early Tuesday, as residents scrambled underground while smoke billowed over the capital.

NBC News also reported that Zelenskyy warned that another massive attack could come Tuesday night too, after he said intelligence services had warned a “massive attack” could occur.

The attack sharpened Ukraine’s immediate dependence on air defense supplies, with CBS News reporting Zelenskyy said the “current level of supplies for our air defense does not allow us to shoot down a significant share of the missiles,” and it said 130 people were injured.

“Ukrainian authorities say at least 22 people have been killed and dozens wounded in Russian missile and drone attacks across Ukraine, days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow was preparing for a major offensive”

Al Jazeera

CBS News said Russia launched at least 656 drones and 73 missiles, and it reported that 40 missiles and 602 drones were downed or neutralized while 38 sites were hit, with Kyiv the main target.

In the Guardian’s account, Zelenskyy asked Trump to send Patriot missiles after the strikes, and it quoted him saying, “If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic and other missile strikes, these strikes will continue.”

The Guardian also reported that Dnipro’s mayor Borys Filatov accused Moscow of deliberately using cluster munitions in built-up areas, and it described a four-storey residential building collapse that left six people missing under the rubble.

CNN reported that the overnight assault was among the deadliest for months, and it said Kyiv Metro authorities recorded more than 41,000 residents taking shelter in underground stations during a night-time air raid alert in recent years.