Russian missile strikes on Ukraine resulted in at least 18 fatalities

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, vows a robust reaction while rescuers search through debris in below-freezing temperatures for survivors.

Russia launched waves of missiles into Ukraine’s largest cities, resulting in at least 18 fatalities and over 130 injuries.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a somber evening speech that Russia had fired about 40 missiles of various kinds.

Numerous fatalities occurred in “an ordinary high-rise apartment building,” Zelenskyy added, and more than 200 locations were affected, including 139 residences. “There, regular people resided.”

He pledged a forceful reply.

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“It is inevitable that the Russian war will return home, to the source of this evil, and there it must end,” he declared.

Three waves of strikes struck Kharkiv, in northern Ukraine. Attacks were also launched at the nation’s capital, Kyiv, as well as in central Ukraine, while shelling of Kherson’s southern region was ongoing.

When Oleksandra Terekhovich heard the first explosion, she fled into her Kharkiv home’s corridor. She reported that her door and windows were shattered when the second explosion struck the building next door.

“No more tears are shed. For the past two years, our nation has been experiencing this. We carry terror within us,” she said to the AFP news agency.

While forces are fighting trench and artillery warfare along a 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line, the ceaseless Russian shelling has put Ukrainians on edge.

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According to analysts, Russia gathered missiles at the end of the previous year in anticipation of the most recent campaign, which a US official claimed was an effort to test the vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s air defenses.

More than a hundred high-rise apartment buildings were destroyed in the first two attacks on the city by Russia, which used S-300, Kh-32, and hypersonic Iskander missiles, according to Oleh Syniehubov, regional governor of Kharkiv. More people were injured when an attack on Tuesday night also targeted other facilities, including a residential building.

According to Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of the city, there were people stranded in the debris among the -7C (19.4F) conditions.