Russia today boasted its missile strikes were ‘right on target’ in a sickening Telegram post made just hours after Vladimir Putin unleashed a barrage of rockets on Ukrainian homes.
More than 20 cruise missiles and two drones were fired at cities and towns across Ukraine that were miles away from the front lines, killing at least 19 civilians including a mother and her two-year-old daughter as they slept inside their homes.
Families were blown to pieces, with many victims buried amongst the rubble of their homes, as Russia’s missiles thundered through the air and smashed into residential buildings.
Five hours after the first rocket struck the town of Uman and wreaked havoc there, Russia’s Defence Ministry posted a sinister message that read ‘right on target’ alongside a photograph of a rocket being launched.
The ministry later insisted that its strategic bombers had conducted ‘high-precision’ attacks on Ukrainian army reserve units overnight to prevent them from getting to the frontline.
But the screams of those who watched their relatives and neighbours blown to pieces and the distraught firefighters picking their way through the rubble show the reality of Putin’s missile blitz.
The missiles began raining down on the central city of Dnipro at 4am this morning, with one striking a house where Olga Bilash, 31, and her two-year-old daughter were sleeping, killing them both. Four others were wounded.
Harrowing photographs show their destroyed home, where an entire wall is reduced to rubble. Inside, the remaining walls are blackened from the blast and rubble covers the toddler’s highchair.
In the central town of Uman, families were woken by the sound of explosions tearing through their homes. At least two cruise missiles smashed into a nine-storey building, killing at least 17 people including two 10-year-old children and wounding 17 others.
In a haunting scene, survivors, stricken with grief, broke down in tears and grasped at each other for some form of comfort as they watched their neighbours being carried away from the rubble in body bags.
Hours after the strike, firefighters were still clambering their way through the debris in the hope of finding survivors trapped under the rubble.
Kyiv was also rocked by explosions in the first attack on the capital in nearly two months, with air raid sirens beginning at 4am. Ukraine’s air force managed to intercept 11 cruise missiles and two drones launched at the city.
Explosions were also reported after midnight in Kremenchuk and Poltava in central Ukraine as well as in Mykolaiv in the south.
The bombardment was nowhere near the war’s sprawling front lines or active combat zones in eastern Ukraine, where a grinding war of attrition has taken hold. Moscow has frequently launched long-range missile attacks during the 14-month war, often indiscriminately hitting civilian areas.
Survivors of the Uman strikes recounted terrifying moments as the missiles hit when it still was dark outside.
Halyna, a building resident, said she and her husband were covered in glass by the blast. They saw flames outside their window and scrambled out, but first Halyna checked whether her friend in a neighboring apartment was OK.
‘I was calling, calling her (on the phone), but she didn’t pick up. I even rang the doorbell, but still no answer,’ she told The Associated Press. She used the spare keys from her friend’s apartment and went inside to check on her. She found her lying dead on her apartment floor.
Halyna refused to provide her last name out of security concerns.
Another resident Serhii Lubivskyi said he was woken at 4.30 am by the explosion. He ran to the front door but couldn’t open it. His bathroom and kitchen were in tatters, dishes and doors smashed.
Smoke filled the air and he and his wife went out onto the balcony, where they stood until firefighters rescued them at 7am.
‘My flat is on the seventh floor … We felt the impact, we heard the explosion,’ he said in faltering speech, struggling to make sense of an attack that turned half of his apartment block to rubble.
‘My neighbours are gone, no one is left … only the kitchens were left standing,’ he said, crying as he took a deep drag from a cigarette.
‘Russian bastards … worse than animals,’ he said. ‘They don’t care, the more people they kill, the more they want to kill, just because we don’t want to work for them.’
Another building resident, Olha Turina, said that glass from the explosion flew everywhere.
Turina, whose husband is fighting on the front lines, said one of her child’s classmates was missing.
‘I don’t know where they are, I don’t know if they are alive,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why we have to go through all this. We never bothered anyone.’
One of the 14 people killed in the attack on Uman was a 75-year-old woman who died from internal bleeding caused by the shockwave from the blast in the neighbouring nine-storey building struck by missiles.
Three body bags were seen outside the building as smoke continued to billow hours after the attack.
Soldiers, civilians and emergency crews searched through the rubble outside for more victims, while residents dragged belongings out of the damaged building.
One woman, crying in shock and horror at what she had just witnessed, was taken away by rescue crews.
A haunting video shows a distraught Ukrainian woman with blood on her hands and face after the attack as she points out the wreckage of her flat.
She tells how her children had narrowly escaped death in the terrifying bombardment.
‘A missile hit our block of flats,’ she said, showing the damage. ‘We are all covered in blood. All windows were shattered. Children were sleeping here.
‘They are all alive. We are all covered in blood. I got so scared. I hate you, bloody [Russians], I hate you.’
The missiles were fired from aircraft operating in the Caspian Sea region, according to Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander in Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Overall, he said Ukraine intercepted 21 of 23 Kh-101 and Kh-555 type cruise missiles launched, as well as the two drones.
The attacks came days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a ‘long and meaningful’ phone call where Xi said his government will send a peace envoy to Ukraine and other nations.
But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Friday’s bombardment showed the Kremlin isn’t interested in a peace deal.
‘Missile strikes killing innocent Ukrainians in their sleep, including a 2-year-old child, is Russia’s response to all peace initiatives,’ he tweeted. ‘The way to peace is to kick Russia out of Ukraine.’
In Kyiv, fragments from intercepted missiles or drones damaged power lines and a road in one neighborhood. No casualties were reported.
Ukraine officials said last week that they had taken delivery of American-made Patriot missiles, providing Kyiv with a long-sought new shield against Russian airstrikes, but there was no word on whether the system was used Friday.
The city’s anti-aircraft system was activated, according to the Kyiv City Administration. Air raid sirens started at about 4 a.m., and the alert ended about two hours later.
The missile attack was the first on the capital since March 9. Air defenses have thwarted Russian drone attacks more recently.
The attacks come as Ukrainian forces are expected to soon launch an offensive with new military equipment, including tanks, from its Western allies after Russian forces made little headway in a winter offensive.
Russian forces have suffered setbacks throughout the conflict and have been trying for 10 months to punch their way into the shattered remains of Bakhmut, once a city of 70,000.
Russia sees Bakhmut as a key stepping stone to other cities in eastern Ukraine, now its major military objective.
The Russian attacks came as Nato announced that its allies have delivered more than 98 per cent of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine during Russia’s invasion and war, strengthening Kyiv’s capabilities as it contemplates launching a counteroffensive.
Along with more than 1,550 armoured vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, Ukraine’s allies have sent ‘vast amounts of ammunition’ and trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian brigades, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said.
More than 30,000 troops are estimated to make up the new brigades. Some partner countries, such as Sweden and Australia, have also provided armoured vehicles.
‘This will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory,’ Mr Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.
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