Russia launches rush hour attacks in Ukraine, accuses West of escalation
CBC
Russia launched a rush-hour barrage of missiles toward Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least one person, the day after Kyiv secured Western pledges of dozens of modern battlefield tanks to try to push back the Russian invasion.
Moscow reacted with fury to the German and American announcements, and has in the past responded to apparent Ukrainian successes with airstrikes that have left millions without light, heat or water.
Ukrainian air defences shot down 47 of the 55 missiles Russian forces fired at Ukraine, the country's top general said on Thursday.
Moscow used the Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile, among other models, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said on his Telegram channel. Twenty of the incoming missiles were shot down around the area of the capital Kyiv, he said.
"The goal of the Russians remains unchanged: psychological pressure on Ukrainians and the destruction of critical infrastructure," he wrote. "But we cannot be broken!"
In the Ukrainian capital, crowds of people took cover in underground metro stations. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person had been killed and two wounded when a missile hit non-residential buildings in the south of the city.
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Kyiv's military administration said more than 15 missiles fired at Kyiv had been shot down, but urged people to remain on shelters.
DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy producer, said it was conducting emergency power shutdowns in Kyiv, the surrounding region and also the regions of Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk because of the imminent danger.
In Odesa, Russian missile strikes damaged energy infrastructure, the district military administration said.
Western analysts say the attacks on Ukraine's cities are more an attempt to break morale than a strategic campaign.
The Kremlin said on Thursday it saw the promised delivery of Western tanks to Ukraine as "direct involvement" of the United States and Europe in the 11-month-old conflict.
"There are constant statements from European capitals and Washington that the sending of various weapons systems to Ukraine, including tanks, in no way signifies the involvement of these countries or the alliance in hostilities in Ukraine," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"We categorically disagree with this, and in Moscow, everything that the alliance and the capitals I mentioned are doing is seen as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that this is growing."
