Missile attack by Russia kills at least 11 in Zelensky’s home town

KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine – A Russian missile strike killed at least 11 people in an apartment building and a warehouse in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s home town on Tuesday, while Moscow’s forces yielded ground in the early stages of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Residents sobbed outside the burnt-out apartment block and smoke billowed after the early-morning attack in Kryvyi Rih, a half-hour drive from the huge reservoir emptied last week by the destruction of a dam that flooded a swathe of southern Ukraine.

Officials said at least four people were killed in the apartment building and another seven in the warehouse. Twenty-eight were injured.

Broken glass and bricks were strewn across the street and courtyard outside the apartment block. At least five cars were ruined husks.

Survivors described two explosions. Ms Olha Chernousova said she was thrown out of her bed by a violent blast wave.

She escaped onto her balcony to wait for rescuers. “I thought I would have to jump into a tree.”

“Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people,” Mr Zelensky, who was born in the city, said on Telegram.

“Terrorists will never be forgiven, and they will be held accountable for every missile they launch,” he said.

During the early hours of Tuesday, air raid sirens blared across the whole of Ukraine, with Kyiv’s military officials saying air defence forces destroyed all Russian missiles targeting the Ukrainian capital.

Ukraine’s top military command said air forces destroyed 10 of 14 cruise missiles Russia launched on Ukraine and one of the four Iranian-made drones.

“According to initial reports, the enemy used Kh-101/555 cruise missiles,” the Kyiv city military administration said.

“All enemy targets in the airspace around Kyiv were detected and successfully destroyed by the forces and means of air defence,” it said, adding there was no immediate information on any casualties or damage.

It was not immediately clear how many missiles hit Kryvyi Rih and where the Russia-launched drones struck their targets.

Mr Ihor Terekhov, mayor of the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine’s east, said on Telegram that Russian drones hit civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv as well.

“According to initial reports, a utility company in the Kyivskyi district, as well as a warehouse in Saltivskyi district got damaged. A fire broke out as a result of the explosion on the latter,” he said.

Air alerts were also sounded in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast and the neighbouring Donetsk and Poltava regions.

‘Trophies’

The fresh wave of attacks came shortly before Moscow claimed to have captured several German Leopard tanks and US Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.

The Russian Defence Ministry on Tuesday released footage showing Russian troops surveying the equipment supplied to Ukraine by Western countries.

“Leopard tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. These are our trophies. Equipment of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Zaporizhzhia region,” the ministry said in a statement.

Kyiv has appealed to its allies in the West to deliver a broad range of modern military equipment to help Ukrainian forces recapture large swathes of territory controlled by Russia.

The Russian Defence Ministry said several of the captured vehicles had working engines, suggesting that battles they were involved in had been short and that Ukrainian troops had “fled” their offensive positions.

‘We are moving forward’

The wave of overnight strikes also came a day after Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was making small gains in a “tough” counter-offensive.

“The fighting is tough, but we are moving forward. This is very important,” he said on Monday.

“I thank our guys for every Ukrainian flag that is now returning to its rightful place in villages on the newly de-occupied territory.”

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said “seven settlements were liberated” – referring to the villages of Lobkovo, Levadne and Novodarivka in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, which houses Europe’s largest nuclear plant, now under Russian occupation.

Ms Malyar said Ukrainian forces have also regained control of the village of Storozheve in the south of the Donetsk region, near three villages recaptured on Sunday.

“The area of the territory taken under control amounted to 90 sq km,” she said.

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said its forces have advanced “250 to 700m” in the direction of the flashpoint eastern city of Bakhmut.

Russia said on Monday it repelled Ukrainian attacks in the same area in the Donetsk region near Velyka Novosilka. It also said it fought off Ukrainian attacks around the village of Levadne in the Zaporizhzhia region.

“Ukrainian forces made visually verified advances in western Donetsk oblast and western Zaporizhzhia oblast, which Russian sources confirmed but sought to downplay,” the US-based Institute for the Study of War said in an analytical note on Monday.

After seven months of a huge Russian offensive that yielded scant gains, Ukraine began its counter-offensive last week.

So far the offensive is in its early days, with tens of thousands of fresh Ukrainian troops and hundreds of Western armoured vehicles yet to be committed to the fight.

According to military analysts, Ukraine is currently still testing and “shaping” the front with targeted attacks to determine weak points.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the long-awaited campaign, with weapons donated by Western allies, would last weeks if not months.

“We want it to be as successful as possible so that we can then start a negotiation phase in good conditions,” he said in Paris, speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda. AFP, REUTERS