Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to respond to Russia’s unprecedented air assault on Ukraine with fire and fury.
Russia launched 122 missiles and a score of drones against Ukrainian targets overnight, killing at least 20 civilians across the country in what an air force official said was the biggest aerial barrage of the war.
The Ukrainian air force claimed it intercepted most of the ballistic and cruise missiles and Shahed-type drones but at least 88 were injured and an unknown number were buried under rubble during the roughly 18-hour onslaught.
Among the buildings reported to be damaged across Ukraine were a maternity hospital, apartment blocks and schools.
In the wake of the unprecedented attack, Zelenksy has promised to respond with equal force.
“We will surely respond to terrorist strikes,” the Ukrainian president said.
“And we will continue to fight for the security of our entire country, every city, and every citizen. Russian terror must and will lose.”
A nationwide air alert was put in place as drones and hypersonic, ballistic and cruise missiles rained down over Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv and Konotop in the early hours of Friday morning.
Zelensky said the Kremlin’s forces used a wide variety of weapons, including ballistic and cruise missiles.
“Today, Russia used nearly every type of weapon in its arsenal,” he said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Russia “apparently launched everything they have”, except for submarine-launched Kalibr missiles, in the attack.
The aerial attack that began Thursday and continued through the night hit six cities, including the capital, Kyiv, and other areas from east to west and north to south Ukraine, according to authorities.
Reports of deaths and damage came in from across the country.
Five people were killed and 20 injured in the eastern city of Dnipro where four maternity hospital patients were rescued from a fire, officials said.
In Odesa, on the southern coast, falling drone wreckage started a fire at a multi-story residential building, according to the regional head, Oleh Kiper. Two people were killed and 15, including two children, were injured in the course of the Odesa attack, he said.
The mayor of the western city of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, said one person was killed and eight injured and three schools and a kindergarten were damaged in a drone attack in the region.
Several dozen missiles were launched towards Kyiv during the night, with more than 30 of them intercepted, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration.
The attack started a fire at a warehouse in the capital’s Podil district where five people reportedly were pulled from the rubble. Three people were killed in the capital.
In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city was subjected to at least three waves of aerial attacks overnight that included S-300 and Kh-21 missile launches.
One person was killed and at least nine injured, officials said.
