The war between Russia and Ukraine reared its ugly head again on Friday, when the former launched a massive air attack on the latter, thus killing at least 30 people and wounding scores across the country in the fiercest assault since the first days of the war nearly two years ago.
Schools, a maternity hospital, shopping arcades and blocks of flats were among the buildings hit in the barrage, said Ukrainian officials.
The attacks on Ukraine triggered international condemnation and fresh promises of military support to Ukraine, which has been fighting off invading Russian troops since late February 2022.
“Today Russia hit us with almost everything it has in its arsenal,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
According to the Ukraine Military, Russia had launched 158 missiles and drones on Ukraine and 114 of them had been destroyed.
Interior Minister Igor Klymenko announced on Telegram: “As of now, 30 people have been killed and more than 160 wounded as a result of Russia’s massive attack on Ukrainian territory in the morning.”
Late Friday, Russian authorities said a strike on a residential building in Belgorod, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, had left one dead and four wounded.
A total of 13 missiles were intercepted over the Belgorod region while 32 drones were downed overnight in the Bryansk, Kursk and Oryol regions north of the border and in the Moscow region, according to the Russian defence ministry.
Russia’s army said it had “carried out 50 group strikes and one massive strike” on military facilities in Ukraine over the past week, adding that “all targets were hit”.
The United Nations condemned the attacks and said they must stop “immediately”.
“Regrettably, today’s appalling assaults were only the latest in a series of escalating attacks by the Russian Federation,” said UN assistant secretary-general Mohamed Khiari.
Poland reported that a Russian missile passed through its airspace.
“Everything indicates that a Russian missile entered Polish airspace… It also left,” said General Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the general staff of the Polish armed forces.
After speaking to Polish President Andrzej Duda, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance “stands in solidarity” with Poland, adding: “NATO remains vigilant.”
