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Russian air strikes target Kyiv and its ports, industrial sites

Officials?said that Russia targeted warehouses, ports and energy and industrial installations in an hour-long attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, early Thursday morning. After an overnight barrage of unspecified ballistic missiles, 258 drones and an unknown number of hypersonic missiles, commuters in Kyiv rushed to work amid the booming sounds of air defences shooting at jet-powered aircraft attacking the city. Andrii Sybiha, Foreign Minister, said that Russia launched a massive attack against Ukraine overnight, targeting ports, grain stores, energy, industry and other infrastructure with ballistic and hypersonic weapons and combat drones. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, said that Ukraine received a small number of Patriot interceptors made by the United States this week. These interceptors are capable of intercepting fast-moving missiles which are notoriously hard to intercept. In a Thursday statement, the Kyiv air force stated that Ukrainian forces had shot down seven ballistic missiles and one anti-ship cruise rocket, as well as nearly 90% of?drones. Oleh Syniehubov, regional governor of Kharkiv region, confirmed that one person was killed in the attack at lunchtime on a Kharkiv shopping center. Two others were injured.

Damages in several regions of Kyiv. According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, debris has fallen into at least two districts and damaged a school. It also shattered windows at a health facility. He added that two people were injured during a daytime assault. The regional governor reported that two people were injured outside of the capital, after strikes damaged private homes and warehouses. A large plume of smoke was seen on TV over a nearby warehouse. The regional governor of the central Poltava said that air strikes targeted industrial sites, an energy facility and cut power to seven settlements. Oleksandr Hanzha, the governor of Kryvyi Rih (Zelenskiy’s hometown), a mining and steel hub, reported that three people were injured after a missile attack on an industrial site. Ivan Fedorov, regional chief of Zaporizhzhia, said that three more people were injured?in southern city Zaporizhzhia following strikes on a production facility. Officials said that in an attack lasting several hours on southern Odesa, infrastructure, a?educational facility and a multistorey building had been damaged. Three people were injured. The Russian defence ministry reported that Moscow had?hit steelworks in Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia and an oil refinery located in Poltava, as well as logistics centres in Kyiv, and three ports within the Odesa area. Local authorities reported that six Russian drones 'crossed over into the airspace of neighboring Moldova. This prompted President Maia Sandu "to strongly condemn this intimidation". One of the drones was discovered on Moldovan soil. The company reported on Thursday that a drone attack overnight in central Russia destroyed a logistics facility belonging to the online retailer Ozon. This is the latest apparent Ukrainian attack against the company. (Jekaterina Golubkova, Tokyo; Dan Peleschuk, Writing; Alexandra Hudson and Gareth Jones editing)

(source: Reuters)