Russia sent waves of drones and missiles in an attack on two Ukrainian cities early Tuesday that killed two people and wounded at least thirteen others, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an online statement called the attack "one of the biggest" in the war that has raged for over three years, saying Moscow's forces fired over 315 drones, mostly Shaheds, and seven missiles at Ukraine overnight.
Russia-Ukraine war is top of the agenda as European leaders meet in Albania on security concerns
“Russian missile and Shahed strikes are louder than the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,” Zelenskyy wrote, urging “concrete action” from the United States and Europe in response to the attack.
A maternity hospital and residential buildings in the center of the southern port city of Odesa were damaged in the attack, regional head Oleh Kiper said. Two people were killed and nine injured in the city, according to a statement from the regional prosecutor's office.
Four people were injured in the attack on the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Associated Press journalists heard explosions and the buzzing of drones around the city for hours.
The fresh attacks came hours after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment in the three-year war. Ukrainian and Western officials have been anticipating a Russian response to Ukraine's audacious June 1 drone attack on distant Russian air bases.
Plumes of smoke were visible in Kyiv as air defense forces worked to shoot down drones and missiles Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian residents took shelter and slept in metro stations during the hourslong attack. Nina Nosivets, 32, and her 8-month-old son Levko were among them.
“I just try not to think about all this, silently curled up like a mouse, wait until it all passes, the attacks. Distract the child somehow because its probably the hardest thing for him to bear," she said.
Krystyna Semak, a 37-year-old Kyiv resident, said the explosions frightened her and she ran to the metro at 2 a.m. with her rug.
Russian attack on Kharkiv kills 3, injures 21
Russia has been launching a record-breaking number of drones and missiles targeting Ukraine while the two countries continue to swap prisoners of war, the only tangible outcome of recent direct peace talks held in Istanbul. A ceasefire, long sought by Kyiv, remains elusive.
In Kyiv, fires broke out in at least four districts after debris from shot down drones fell on the roofs of residential buildings and warehouses, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.
Vasyl Pesenko, 25, stood in his kitchen, damaged in the attack.
“I was lying in bed, as always hoping that these Shaheds (drones) would fly past me, and I heard that Shahed (that hit the house),” he said. “I thought that it would fly away, but it flew closer and closer and everything blew away.”
The Russian attack sparked 19 fires across Ukraine, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram. “Russia must answer for every crime it commits. Until there is justice, there will be no security. For Ukraine. And for the world,” he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday morning reported downing 102 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The drones were downed both over regions on the border with Ukraine and deeper inside Russia, including central Moscow and Leningrad regions, according to the Defense Ministry’s statement.
Because of the drone attack, flights were temporarily restricted in and out of multiple airports across Russia, including all four airports in Moscow and the Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg, the country’s second largest city.