KYIV, July 4: In one of its deadliest aerial attacks, Russia launched a record 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine overnight, with Kyiv sustaining the heaviest damage, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, reports BBC.
The strikes, majority of which got intercepted, nonetheless managed to cause significant damage, with 72 of the 550 drones penetrating Ukraine’s air defences – up from a previous record of 537 launched last week.
Air raid alerts sounded for more than eight hours as several waves of attacks struck Kyiv, the “main target of the strikes”, the air force said on app Telegram.
As per preliminary reports, over 63 drones and nine missiles struck targets in eight locations, while debris from downed projectiles landed in 33 sites.
Educational, healthcare and transport infrastructure in the city was also damaged, local media quoted Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko as saying.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned it as one of the most “demonstratively significant and cynical” attacks of the war, describing a “harsh, sleepless night”.
He called on international allies – particularly the US – to increase pressure on Moscow and impose greater sanctions.
The night strikes also echoed in Warsaw, with Poland’s Foreign Minister, Rados aw Sikorski, stating the Polish consulate had also been damaged.
The Russian strikes also hit the regions of Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Chernihiv.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said the “massive strike” had been launched in response to the “terrorist acts of the Kyiv regime”.
Moscow’s overnight strikes came merely hours after President Vladmir Putin’s phone call with US President Donald Trump, which failed to yield any results, with Russia refusing to back down and continuing its military campaign, adding that it will do whatever it takes to achieve its objectives.
Following his conversation with Putin on Thursday, Trump said that “no progress” to end the fighting had been made.
“I’m very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin, because I don’t think he’s there, and I’m very disappointed,” Trump said.
“I’m just saying I don’t think he’s looking to stop, and that’s too bad.”
The Kremlin reiterated that it would continue to seek to remove “the root causes of the war in Ukraine”.
Responding to the agency, Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said as long as it was not possible to secure Russia’s aims through political-diplomatic means, “we are continuing our Special Military Operation.”
(UNI)
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