AT least 30 people have been killed in what Ukraine says is Russia’s biggest missile bombardment of the war so far.
More than 160 people were injured as Russia hit Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Lviv in the early hours of Friday morning.
Russia “used nearly every type of weapon in its arsenal”, with homes and a maternity hospital hit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Ukraine’s air force said it had never seen so many missiles launched at once.
Kyiv’s air defences have drastically improved in recent months, but on Friday they were overwhelmed.
An Air Force spokesperson said Russia used hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles, including X-22 type, which are difficult to intercept. “We’ve never seen so many targets hit simultaneously,” he added.
The air force said 114 of 158 missiles and drones had been shot down.
Black smoke billowed from the different blast sites. We headed to one which was a 200-metre-long warehouse in Kyiv’s Podilskyy district, owned by a construction company. It had been completely hollowed out from the impact.
It’s a level of devastation only caused by a direct missile strike. For months, mostly falling debris caused the damage and loss of life that Ukrainians constantly fear. A bigger threat has now returned.
