Russia launches 'most massive aerial attack' on Ukraine since invasion began

Russia launched 122 missiles and 36 drones against Ukrainian targets, officials said Friday, killing at least 30civilians in what a Ukrainianair force official said was the biggest aerial barrage of the 22-month war.

At least 144 people were injured and an unknown number were buried under rubble during the roughly 18-hour onslaught, Ukrainian officials said. A maternity hospital, apartment blocks and schools were among the buildings reported damaged across Ukraine.

In the capital ofKyiv, broken glass and mangled metal littered city streets. Air raid and emergency service sirens wailed as plumes of smoke drifted into a bright blue sky.

Kateryna Ivanivna, a 72-year-old Kyiv resident, said she threw herself to the ground when a missile struck.

"There was an explosion, then flames. I covered my head and got down in the street. Then I ran into the subway station."

The Ukrainian air force intercepted most of the ballistic and cruise missiles and the Shahed-type drones overnight, said Ukraine's military chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

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Western officials and analysts have recently warned that Russia hadlimited its cruise missile strikes in recent months in an apparenteffort to build up stockpiles for massive strikes during the winter inhopes of breakingthe Ukrainians' spirit.

The result was "the most massive aerial attack" since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, air force Cmdr.Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his official Telegram channel.

It topped the previous biggest assault, in November 2022, when Russia launched 96 missiles, and this year's biggest, with 81 missiles on March 9, according to air force records.

Damage in multiple cities

Damage was reported in the capital Kyiv,the central city of Dnipro, the western city of Lviv, the southeastern port of Odesa andthe eastern city of Kharkiv.

Fighting along the front line is largely bogged down by winter weather after Ukraine's summer counteroffensive failed to make a significant breakthrough along the roughly 1,000-kilometreline of contact.

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Ukrainian officials have urged Western allies to provide the countrywith more air defences to protect itself against aerial attacks like this most recent barrage. Their appeals have come as signs of war fatigue strain efforts to keep support in place.

The UNSecurity Council hastily convened later Friday to discuss the attack, which Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari called "appalling."

"Tragically, 2023 is ending as it began with devastating violence against the people of Ukraine," he said, and noted that international humanitarian law forbids attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the bombardment shows Russian President Vladimir Putin must be stopped, "but unless Congress takes urgent action in the new year, we will not be able to continue sending the weapons and vital air defence systems Ukraine needs to protect its people. Congress must step up and act."

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the huge attack should stir the world to further action in support of Ukraine.

"These widespread attacks on Ukraine's cities showPutin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy," Sunak said on X, formerly Twitter. "We must continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes."

At least 144injured

Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the scale of the attack should wake people up to Ukraine's continuing needs.

"Today, millions of Ukrainians awoke to the loud sound of explosions," he wrote on X. "I wish those sounds of explosions in Ukraine could be heard all around the world. In all major capitals, headquarters, and parliaments, which are currently debating further support for Ukraine."

In Boyarka, a city near Kyiv, the debris of a shot-down drone fell on a home and started a fire.

Andrii Korobka, 47, said his mother was sleeping next to the room where the wreckage landed and was taken to hospital suffering from shock.

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"The war goes on, and it can happen to any house, even if you think yours will never be affected," Korobka said.

Tetiana Sakhnenko, who lives next door, said neighbours ran with buckets of water to put out the blaze, but it spread quickly. "It's so scary," she said.

The attack hitsix cities, and reports of deaths and damage came in from across the country.

As rescuers picked through the rubble of a strike that hit ahouse in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, Viktor Chuhunov,73, told Reuters he was at home when he suddenly heard apowerful explosion.

"A woman died here. I don't know whether her son was athome maybe he was at work," he said of the house.

Missiles also hit several infrastructure facilities inZaporizhzhia, the interior minister said on Telegram messenger.

Kindergarten, maternity hospital damaged

Five people were killed and 20 injured in the eastern city of Dnipro, where four maternity hospital patients were rescued from a fire, officials said.

In Odesa, falling drone wreckage started a fire at a multi-storey residential building, according to the regional head, Oleh Kiper. Two people were killed and 15, including two children, were injured in the course of the Odesa attack, he said.

Lviv MayorAndrii Sadovyisaid one person was killed, with three schools and a kindergarten damaged in a drone attack.Local emergency services said 30 people were injured.

Several dozen missiles were launched towardKyiv during the night, with more than 30 of them intercepted, said Serhii Poplo, head of the Kyiv military administration. The attack started a fire at a warehouse in the capital's Podil district, where five people reportedly were pulled from the rubble. Three people were killed in the capital.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city was subjected to at least three waves of aerial attacks overnight that included S-300 and Kh-21 missile launches. One person was killed and at least nine injured, officials said.

Entered airspace

Poland's military said it believes a Russian missilehad entered the NATO member'sairspace from neighbouring Ukraine and had been tracked by its air defences until its signal disappeared.

"Everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in Poland's airspace. It was monitored by us on radars and left the airspace. We have confirmation of this on radars and from allies" in NATO, said Poland's defence chief, Gen. Wiesaw Kukua.

Poland's defence forces said the object penetrated about 40 kilometres into its airspace and left it under three minutes later.

Kukula said steps were being taken to verify those findings and eliminate the possibility of a technical error.

There was no comment from Russian officials.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on X that he had spoken with Poland's president about the "missile incident," and said NATO was vigilant and monitoring the situation "as the facts are established."

It was not immediately clear where the object disappeared from radar or which direction it had been going. Troops were mobilized to identify and find it. There were no immediate reports of any explosion or casualties.