Russia launched one of its heaviest air attacks in recent weeks overnight into Wednesday, striking Kyiv and roughly a dozen other Ukrainian regions with missiles and drones. Ukrainian officials said at least 19 civilians were killed, four of them children, and around 60 people were hurt.
The worst damage was in Pryluky, a town in the northern Chernihiv region, where a strike destroyed an apartment building. Ukraine's interior minister, Ihor Vyhivskyi, said 13 people died there, including the four children, and about 50 were injured. Deaths were also reported in three other cities, among them Kyiv, and two people were killed in Kremenchuk in the Poltava region.
An attack Ukraine saw coming
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned a day earlier that Ukrainian intelligence expected a "massive" strike. He later said Russia fired 70 missiles and drones. The attack fell on Russian President Vladimir Putin's 74th birthday.
Knowing an attack is coming doesn't mean Ukraine can stop it. The country is short on ammunition for its U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, which are its main protection against ballistic missiles. Those interceptors have become harder to find because of the war involving Iran. Ukraine is also trying to build new interceptors that can catch Russia's faster, jet-powered drones.
What Russia says it hit
Russia's Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted factories and storage sites that make missiles and drones, including facilities run by the Ukrainian company Fire Point, as well as port and ship repair sites in the Odesa region. Ukrainian officials said civilians bore the cost.
Ukraine has been hitting back at Russian oil refineries and fuel depots. Zelenskyy said Ukraine struck two oil sites and a training ground in Russia's Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions, and he shared images of what he said was a burning tanker near Sochi. Those images could not be independently verified.
Europe sends more money
The European Commission said Wednesday it had paid out €1.24 billion to Ukraine to buy drones, drone interceptors, ammunition and missiles, as part of a loan promised earlier. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe was stepping up and called on others to do the same.
More than four and a half years into the full-scale invasion, the front lines remain largely stuck, and the war is increasingly being fought through long-range strikes on both sides.