Russia launched a wave of missile strikes on Friday across Ukrainian cities, including the capital, officials said, as they raised a nationwide air alert.
“We are doing everything to strengthen our air shield. But the world needs to see that we need more support and strength to stop this terror,” Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.
AFP reporters in central Kyiv heard several powerful explosions in the early hours of Friday.
“Explosions in Kyiv. Air defence operating. Stay in shelters,” the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram.
Klitschko later said a warehouse was on fire.
Sergiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said debris fell in two parts of the city and there was also a fire in a residential apartment building.
The overnight attacks came days after Ukraine struck a Russian warship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia in a major setback for the Russian navy.
Drones and missiles struck at least five other Ukrainian cities on Friday, including Kharkiv in the northeast, Lviv in the west as well as Odesa in the south, the cities’ mayors and police said.
“Today, at five o’clock in the morning, the fascists’ followers hit the peaceful city with S-300 missiles. Ten explosions rang out in Kharkiv,” Kharkiv region police said.
Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov later said there had been three waves of strikes on Friday.
In the southern port of Odesa, a high-rise building caught fire after being struck by debris from a downed drone, the city’s mayor said.
“As a result of another enemy attack, one of the high-rise buildings was damaged. The fire was promptly extinguished,” mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said on social media.
Ukraine’s southern command said 14 attack drones had been destroyed in the south of the country and there were no casualties reported.
The attacks came after the Kremlin on Tuesday acknowledged a Ukrainian attack had damaged one of its warships.
Ukraine said its air force destroyed the Novocherkassk landing ship, with President Volodymyr Zelensky joking on social media that the vessel had now joined “the Russian underwater Black Sea fleet”.
The Kremlin said Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin “about the damage to our large landing ship”.
Russia’s defense ministry said that the ship was damaged by guided aerial missiles.
On Thursday, Zelensky thanked the United States for releasing the last remaining package of weapons available for Ukraine under the existing authorization, as uncertainty surrounds further aid to his war-torn country.
Zelensky had warned that any change in policy from the US — Kyiv’s main backer — could have a strong impact on the course of the war.
“I thank President Joe Biden, Congress, and the American people for the $250 million military aid package announced yesterday,” Zelensky said on social media.
“To defend freedom and security not only in Ukraine and Europe but also in the United States, we must continue to respond to ongoing Russian aggression,” he said.
