At least 25 civilians were killed during a major Russian bombardment across Ukraine on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian officials, strikes that came a day after Ukrainian forces launched nearly 900 drones into Russia.
The majority of the dead were killed by strikes that hit an apartment block in Pryluky, a city in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv Oblast. According to the Main Directorate of the National Police in Chernihiv, at least 19 people, including five children, were killed by the attack.
Russia took credit for strikes in Pryluky, but the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the attacks targeted an “industrial enterprise” that “manufactures and stores FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile components.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said that its “massive” attacks across Ukraine targeted “defense industry enterprises” in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions. It also claimed attacks on “port and ship repair infrastructure in the Odessa region, and sea vessels operating in the interests” of the Ukrainian military.
Ukraine had been expecting the attack, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that a “massive” Russian strike was coming, but Ukraine’s lack of Patriot missiles and other advanced air defenses makes it essentially defenseless against Russian ballistic missiles.
Russia has escalated its bombardment of Ukraine in response to the massive Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory, and the policies have resulted in more civilian casualties on both sides. Rodion Miroshnik, a Russian Foreign Ministry official, said on Tuesday that over the past week, Ukrainian drone attacks have killed 29 Russian civilians over the past week.
