No fewer than 10 persons have been reportedly killed following airstrikes by Russian forces targeted at Ukraine’s Zelensky home city.
The strikes overnight hit multiple sites and smashed into a five-storey apartment building in the central city of Kryvyi Rig, leaving smoke billowing from the housing block strewn with debris.
“Ten people have died. One is under rubble. Twenty-eight are injured and 12 of them are in the city’s hospitals in medium, serious and very serious condition,” said Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city’s military administration.
“Rescue operations are ongoing,” he added.
Zelensky said after the strikes that Russian forces were waging a war against “residential buildings, ordinary cities and people”.
He promised Ukrainians that those responsible would be held to account.
“Terrorists will never be forgiven, and they will be held accountable for every missile they launch,” he said in a statement on social media.
Air raid sirens earlier had sounded across Ukraine as the capital Kyiv and the northeast city of Kharkiv also came under missile and drone attacks.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 14 cruise missiles and four Iranian-made drones overnight, with 10 missiles and one drone intercepted.
In the morning, another missile was fired by Russian forces before being shot down by the Ukrainian air defences.
The fresh wave of attacks came shortly before Moscow claimed to have captured several German Leopard tanks and US Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.
The defence ministry released footage showing Russian troops surveying the equipment supplied to Ukraine by Western countries.
“Leopard tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. These are our trophies. Equipment of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Zaporizhzhia region,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
“Servicemen of the Vostok group inspect enemy tanks and infantry fighting vehicles captured in battle.”
Kyiv has appealed to its allies in the West to deliver a broad range of modern military equipment to help Ukrainian forces recapture large swathes of territory controlled by Russia.
The defence ministry said several of the captured vehicles had working engines, suggesting that battles they were involved in had been short and that Ukrainian troops had “fled” their offensive positions.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has asked Australia about the condition of dozens of retired F-18 fighter jets, the country’s ambassador told AFP on Tuesday, eyeing a potential weapons transfer that could significantly bolster Kyiv’s airpower.
