At least 22 dead, dozens wounded as Russia launches attacks across Ukraine

'I couldn't escort anything,' says Kyiv adult male who survived Russian walk out

russian federation launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 22 people and wounding 130, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.

The damage trapped some people under the rubble of apartment buildings. Emergency crews digging through the wreckage pulled out the body of a three-year-old child, and the bodies of a mother and her eight-year-old son in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said.

The attack stretched from night into day and the boom of explosions reverberated across cities. Officials said 12 people were killed in Dnipro and six in Kyiv.

Kyiv residents had been on edge for days after Russia warned that a massive aerial attack was coming and urged foreign diplomats to leave the Ukrainian capital. None appeared to heed the call.

"Unfortunately, the current level of supplies for our air defence does not allow us to intercept a significant share of missiles," Zelenskyy said on social media, urging more support from the U.S. And European countries.

The Russian strategy seeks to take advantage of Ukraine's shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defence missiles, with international stocks depleted by the Iran war. That has left civilians especially vulnerable to the Russian ballistic missile barrages, even as air defences stop most of the attack drones.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up Moscow's aerial campaign against Ukraine, with Russian forces recently launching a powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile for only the third time in the four-year war.

U.S.-led peace efforts have fizzled out as the sides made no progress on key differences, and after the Gulf and Middle East grabbed Washington's attention. Zelenskyy accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump, but Putin refused.

Russia's Defence Ministry said in a statement that the military issued a "massive" strike with long-range precision weapons on military industrial facilities in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnytsk and Sumy regions.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the war in Ukraine had ‌entered "a new paradigm" due to "acts of terror" ​carried out by Kyiv's ​military against civilians. Moscow has said it is stepping up its strikes ‌on Ukraine in retaliation for what it has described as a devastating Ukrainian drone ​strike on a student dorm ⁠in Russian-controlled Luhansk in eastern ⁠Ukraine last month that killed ⁠21 ⁠people.

Ukraine ​denies targeting the dorm and ​said it ⁠was aiming for a drone command centre in the area.

Russia unleashed 73 missiles and 656 drones, according to Ukraine's air force.

Hits of 30 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and 33 drones were recorded at at least 38 locations across Ukraine, according to regional authorities. Debris from destroyed drones fell on 15 locations, the air force said.

At least 64 people were wounded in the capital, emergency services said.

Kyiv resident Iryna Salikova, 37, said she spent the night lying in a bathtub for protection with her three-year-old daughter, as blasts reverberated across the city.

"Our window was broken, a cobblestone flew into the children's room," Salikova said, though they weren't hurt. "Thank God we're alive. Today we're alive, today we're lucky."

At least four people were killed in Kyiv and 63 people were injured, including three children, Ukraine's state emergency service said in a statement on Telegram. Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were damaged in eight Kyiv districts.

In the Podilskyi district, there was partial damage to the upper floors of a nine-storey building, trapping people under the rubble. Rescue operations were still underway in the early hours of the morning, even as an air raid alert remained in effect.

In the Solomianskyi district, a 20-storey building and a 24-storey building were damaged.

Olena Dniprovska, 65, and her husband Yevhen, 64, were injured in their apartment in Kyiv's Podilskyi district.

"I went out into the corridor with the phone, and before I understood what happened, everything fell on my head, the glass, and the door blew off," said Dniprovska, dried blood streaked across her face and a bandage wrapped around her chin.

"I ran out into the front door and started calling my husband from the room, but he was also blown out by the blast wave.

"Now I have nowhere to live. The apartment is completely destroyed — no doors, no windows, no balcony. You can step straight from the room out onto the street," she said.

In Kharkiv, at least 14 people were injured, and residential homes, garages and cars were damaged. A two-storey residential building and part of a four-storey apartment block were also damaged, with people trapped beneath the rubble of the larger building.

---

---