Russia’s bombardment campaign against Ukrainian cities continued unabated Friday, with a major strike that sent dozens of missiles aimed at Kyiv — one of the largest attacks on the capital since the war began.
The Ukrainian capital’s air defenses once again knocked out the majority of incoming fire, shooting down 37 of an estimated 40 rockets fired on the city, the military said.
Russian strikes were also carried out against Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, as well as Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia.
In total, Ukraine’s military said it shot down 60 of the 76 missiles launched Friday.
In Kryvyi Rih, one of those exploded after hitting a four-story apartment building, killing three people and sending 13 more to the hospital, according to city officials. Rescue teams were reportedly sifting through the rubble for a missing woman and her 18-month-old child.
The strikes on the city — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown — also trapped nearly 600 miners underground, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said. Rescue operations were ongoing Friday.
Vilkul also told reporters that several power facilities were “completely destroyed” in the bombing.
In Zaporizhzhia and the surrounding area, 21 Russian rockets made impact, according to city officials there. Outages were reported, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the Kharkiv Province, said there’d been three strikes on infrastructure in Kharkiv city Friday.
Ukraine’s state-owned power company, Ukrenergo, said Friday’s attack was the ninth wave of missile strikes against the power grid.
“The restoration of power supply may take longer than before,” it said in a statement.
Kyiv said Russia had fired the missiles from the Sea of Azov, both from the Admiral Makarov — a Russian frigate — and from Tu-22 bombers.
The attacks are a continuation of what has become a regular part of life in Ukraine — Russian attacks on the power grid. Western analysts and Ukrainian leaders have called the tactic an effort to freeze Ukrainians into submission as they enter the winter months without heat or power.
And Ukraine’s national railroad has reportedly begun switching to steam-powered trains in an effort to work around the outages.
Ukrainian officials earlier this week said Russia appears to be trying to draw out the war as they train more soldiers and seek to rebuild ammunition stores.
But Ukrainian defenses have rendered the tactic less offensive in recent months, with Kyiv’s air defense systems knocking down all thirteen drones launched at the capital earlier this week.
The US this week agreed to further supplement Ukraine’s air defenses by providing a Patriot missile battery, a sophisticated surface-to-air missile system capable of shooting down cruise missiles and shorter-range ballistic missiles.
With wires