KYIV: Russia fired scores of missiles and drones at targets across Ukraine on Sunday, crashing into energy and rail infrastructure and residential buildings, just two days before the fourth anniversary of Russia's attack. Journalists in Kyiv heard a series of blasts starting at around 4:00 am (02:00 GMT), shortly after an air raid alert was issued, with the air force later widening the alert nationwide citing the threat of missiles. "Moscow continues to invest in strikes more than in diplomacy," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on the attack on social media, saying that Russia launched about 50 missiles and 300 drones overnight. "The main target of the attack was the energy sector. Ordinary residential buildings were also damaged, and there is damage to the railway."
One man was killed and a dozen more people were wounded, among them four children, in and around Kyiv, Ukraine's national police said. Reporters saw rescuers sifting through debris of a largely destroyed two-storey house in Sofiivska Borshchagivka in the Kyiv region. Temperatures had plunged to nearly -10C when the capital was struck, with emergency services deployed across the city.
The Ukrainian capital, regularly targeted by Russian missile and drone attacks since the start of the attack on February 24, 2022, has faced waves of overnight strikes in recent weeks as Moscow has intensified its winter assaults. The Russian army said it had carried out a mass strike targeting facilities used by Ukraine's military, saying all targets were hit, in a standard comment for such attacks. Authorities in Russia's western Belgorod region said one man died after a Ukrainian drone strike.
The bombardment, which included ballistic and cruise missiles, prompted heightened vigilance across Ukraine, all the way to the western border. Ukraine's energy ministry said consumers in six eastern and southeastern region were without power after the strikes. Poland's Operational Command said early on Sunday it was scrambling jets after detecting "long?range aviation of the Russian Federation conducting strikes on the territory of Ukraine".
In a separate attack, an explosion rocked a store in central Lviv, a western city near the Polish border far from the front line that is largely spared the worst of the conflict. Explosions ripped through a central shopping street at around midnight, killing a policewoman and wounding 25 people after officers responded to a reported break in. Hours later, law enforcement said it had detained a Ukrainian woman suspected in carrying out the bomb attack, without providing any further details and saying that an investigation was ongoing. "This is clearly an act of terrorism," mayor Andriy Sadovyi said of the night-time assault. Ukraine will mark four years since Russia's assault on February 24, 2022, a war that has shattered towns, uprooted millions and killed large numbers on both sides.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine was "definitely not losing" the war and that victory remained the goal. He said Ukrainian forces had clawed back about 300 square kilometres of territory in recent counter attacks, gains. If confirmed, they would be Kyiv's most significant advances since 2023. The United States is pushing both sides to end the war, brokering several rounds of talks in recent weeks without a clear breakthrough.
Meanwhile, Hungary will block the European Union's latest package of sanctions against Russia unless Ukraine re-opens a key oil pipeline that supplies the country, Hungary's prime minister and foreign minister both said on Sunday. "No support for sanctions; the 20th sanctions package will be rejected," Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted on X. "Until Ukraine resumes oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline, we will not allow decisions important to Kyiv to move forward," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto posted, also on X.
Separately, Pope Leo XIV said that peace in Ukraine is "an urgent necessity", speaking on Sunday ahead of the fourth anniversary of the war. "Peace cannot be postponed. It is an urgent necessity that must find space in hearts and be translated into responsible decisions," he said in his regular Sunday address to a crowd in St Peter's Square. "I strongly renew my appeal: may the weapons fall silent, may the bombings cease, may a ceasefire be reached without delay, and may dialogue be strengthened to open the way to peace," the American-born pontiff said. — AFP
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