Russian Attack Kills 18 in Ukraine     06/02 06:20

   

   KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of 
missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 18 
civilians and wounding more than 100 others, authorities 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 
3-year-old child and the bodies of a mother and her 8-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 that 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 warned foreign diplomats to leave the Ukrainian 
capital. None appeared to heed the call.

   President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed for more U.S. and European support, 
describing the massive overnight attack as "an explicit statement by Russia: If 
Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, 
those strikes will continue."

   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.

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

   Kyiv mother and daughter shelter in a bath tub

   At least 64 people were wounded in the capital, emergency services said. 
Kyiv resident Iryna Salikova, 37, spent the night lying in a bath tub for 
protection with her 3-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."

   Russia unleashed 73 missiles and 656 drones across Ukraine, according to the 
country's air force, with the main targets including Kyiv, the central city of 
Dnipro, and the eastern cities of Poltava, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian 
air defense forces destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 drones.

   Putin seeks to change the narrative of the war

   Putin is keen to generate some positive news from the conflict that began 
with Russia's February 2022 invasion of its neighbor and hasn't gone according 
to plan.

   Western officials and analysts say Ukrainian drones are pinning down Russian 
troops on the front line, choking Russian supply lines in occupied regions of 
Ukraine and disrupting oil facilities deep inside Russia that provide vital 
revenue for Moscow. That has made the war, which Moscow refers to as a "special 
military operation," more visible to Russians and increased pressure on Putin.

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

   Putin signaled that Russia won't let up its attacks. He said Tuesday that 
Ukraine's May 22 drone attack on a college dormitory in Starobilsk in the 
Russia-controlled Luhansk region of Ukraine that killed 21 had given the war "a 
whole new dimension."

   Ukraine said it hit a Russian drone pilot training center in Starobilsk.

   Man thrown out of Kyiv apartment by blast

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

   Olena Dniprovska, 65, and her husband Yevhen, 64, were wounded in their 
apartment in Kyiv's Podilskyi district during the attack.

   "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 wounded and residential homes, garages 
and cars were damaged. People were also trapped beneath the rubble of a 
four-story apartment block.