Russia pounds Ukraine with 'massive' attack in 'hellish' night

Russia launches massive aerial attack on Ukraine, killing civilians and raising fears of escalating conflict and energy shortages.

Russia on Sunday (November 17, 2024) pummelled Ukraine with a "massive" aerial barrage of missiles and drones, killing at least nine persons across the country in the largest attack in months that Kyiv branded "hellish".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow launched 120 missiles and almost 100 drones, targeting the capital as well as southern, central and far-western corners of the country.

Civilians were killed in the Mykolaiv, Lviv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions in what officials in Kyiv called it one of the biggest barrages of the almost three-year long Russian invasion.

The devastation comes at a time when Moscow has been steadily advancing in Ukraine's east and with the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House raising fears over the future of U.S. support for Kyiv.

"A hellish night," the spokesman for Ukraine's airforce Yuriy Ignat said on social media, adding that Kyiv downed "144 targets".

The giant attack followed two days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the first time in almost two years, calling on the Kremlin chief to end Moscow's devastating offensive.

Kyiv had slammed Mr. Scholz for reaching out to Mr. Putin and on Sunday said the attack was the Kremlin's real answer.