At 10 a.m., according to the images circulating on social networks, the air alert was still ringing. The latter was activated throughout Ukraine this Friday morning, after a series of Russian strikes. Moscow targeted kyiv, but also the cities of Kharkiv, Lviv and Odessa. The number of victims has continued to evolve over the past 8 hours, with the Ukrainian army claiming to have destroyed 114 aerial targets out of 158 launched by the Kremlin. 20 minutes returns to these air attacks which, according to the UN, illustrate “the horrible reality” that Ukraine is experiencing.
What happened in Ukraine early this Friday morning?
Russia has launched a large series of strikes on several cities across Ukraine, including the capital kyiv. The bombings also targeted at least five other cities including Kharkiv (Northeast), Lviv (West), Dnipro (East) and Odessa (South), according to local authorities. In Kiev, where the “anti-aircraft defense is actively functioning” according to its mayor Vitali Klitschko, AFP journalists heard several strong explosions in the early hours of the day and saw thick black smoke rising above a hangar. . Three Iranian Shahed drones were destroyed there, according to the army.
The mayor of Kharkiv, Igor Terekhov, clarified that the strikes had been carried out by S-300 and X-22 missiles. In Lviv, his counterpart Andriy Sadovyi spoke of “two strikes” in an attack carried out in total by “ten Shaheds” in the region. Authorities also reported explosions in the Dnipro region. According to the military, “guided missiles” were fired by Russian Tu95MS bombers. In fact, a generalized air alert for the entire country was activated around 5 a.m. GMT.
What is the outcome of these large-scale attacks?
According to a new report from local authorities, these strikes left at least 16 dead and 97 injured. At least three people were injured in a strike on Konotop, in the Sumy region, where a residential building was notably hit , according to the local military administration.
In Kharkiv, which suffered at least ten strikes in two waves, at least eight people were injured and one of them died, Mayor Igor Terekhov said on television. “So far, we have counted 22 strikes on various districts of Kharkiv,” he added, assuring that these strikes had disrupted the electricity supply to transport. A hospital in the Kyivskyi district was damaged, local police said.
In Lviv, a city more rarely targeted, Governor Maksym Kozytskyi indicated that “one person had been killed and three injured”. In Dnipro, Mayor Borys Filatov reported deaths and injuries. The health ministry said a maternity ward in the city had been “severely damaged”. In Odessa, a building caught fire after being hit by debris from a drone shot down during a strike, according to Mayor Gennady Trukhanov. The fire was quickly brought under control.
According to Vitali Klitschko, seven people are “currently hospitalized in the capital” and a Kiev metro station, used as an air raid shelter, has been damaged. A 3,000 m2 hangar was on fire in the Podil district in the north of kyiv and “there are many injured”, according to the head of the military administration of the capital, Serguiï Popko. Fires are still raging in several other neighborhoods after the strikes.
What is the expert analysis?
Observers did not fail to point out that these attacks come after Russia confirmed on Tuesday that one of its ships had been damaged in an attack on kyiv in annexed Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed by his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of “damage” to the large landing ship Novocherkassk. The Ukrainian army assured, for its part, that it had “destroyed” this ship, which it claimed was carrying Shahed drones, using cruise missiles.
What is kyiv’s reaction?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke at 9 a.m. claiming, with supporting images, that Russia had launched around 110 missiles against several cities in Ukraine. “Today, Russia has used almost every type of weapon in its arsenal,” he said. The Ukrainian army claimed, an hour later, to have destroyed 114 aerial targets out of 158 during the latest Russian strikes
“We haven’t seen so much red on our screens for a long time,” observed Yuri Ignat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force. Russian forces first launched a wave of suicide drones followed by missiles, he said. “There are deaths today, killed by Russian missiles launched at civilian installations, civilian buildings,” denounced Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff. “We are doing everything possible to strengthen our air shield. But the world must see that we need more help and means to stop this terror,” he added on the social network Telegram.
What are the international reactions?
The Russian strikes illustrate “the horrible reality” that Ukraine is experiencing, immediately reacted the UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown. “For the Ukrainian people, this is yet another unacceptable example of the horrible reality they face,” she indicated on the social networkstrongly condemning “a hateful wave of attacks on populated areas of Ukraine”.
As a reminder, this Friday, General Christian Freuding, who supervises support for kyiv within the Bundeswehr, estimated during an interview with the German daily South German Zeitung that Russia was suffering “enormous” losses in men and equipment. At the same time, the general recognized that Russia demonstrated a “resistance capacity” greater than what Western countries assessed at the start of the war: “We perhaps did not see, or we did not want to see , that they are able to continue to be supplied by allies. »