Zelensky says attacks ‘increasing’ as two killed in attacks

KYIV, Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Sunday that Moscow is increasing its aerial bombardment after Russia mounted a “massive” missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight, killing two people and wounding at least seven.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that “the number of Russian air attacks is increasing”, which he said proved that “the pressure on Russia is still insufficient”. Russia on Sunday claimed the capture of a village in Ukraine´s Sumy region in a rare cross-border advance. Early Sunday Russia “launched a massive nationwide attack on Ukraine using ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones,” said first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko. In the capital Kyiv, explosions were heard overnight and a dark plume of smoke rose up from the city early Sunday morning, AFP journalists saw.

“Preliminarily, one person was killed, and three were wounded, two of them were hospitalised,” the head of the city´s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, wrote on social media. City mayor Vitali Klitschko said that “the body of a man killed in an enemy attack was discovered in Darnytsia district. He was on the street, near the epicentre of the explosion. The man´s identity is being established.”

A missile strike partially destroyed a building housing state foreign-language broadcasters, the Russian-language Freedom television channel reported, saying that its newsroom had been destroyed. Emergency services said that during attacks, fires broke out in Kyiv in non-residential buildings, damaging a multi-storey business centre, furniture factory and warehouses. In the nearby Kyiv region a man was burnt when an attack sparked a house fire, the head of the military administration said. The emergency services posted video of smoke rising from charred debris, a gutted hangar and a large multi-storey administrative building with the roof torn off and windows blown out. Overnight, Russia attacked Ukraine with 23 cruise and ballistic missiles and 109 drones, the Ukrainian air force said, causing damage to six regions. The air force said it shot down 13 of the missiles and 40 drones while 54 others caused no damage. In the southern Kherson region, a drone killed a 59-year-old man, while in the northeastern Kharkiv region near the border with Russia two were injured in an attack using guided aerial bombs, regional officials said. In western Ukraine´s Khmelnytsky region, authorities said air defences destroyed a missile but falling fragments damaged a house and a woman was injured. Over the past week, Russia has launched more than 1,460 guided aerial bombs, nearly 670 attack drones, and over 30 missiles of various types on Ukraine, Zelensky said.