The Russian army launches fresh missile strikes against Ukraine

The Russian army has launched fresh missile strikes, targeting the Ukrainian military facilities in the south, west, and east of the country, with reported damage at multiple sites, according to officials.

“The Russian air force carried out 50 multiple attacks and one massive strike with precision weapons and drones on military facilities in Ukraine, all of them were hit,” the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said in a statement, as Russia unveiled one of its biggest drone and missile barrages against Ukraine in months.

A nationwide air alert went off as drones, hypersonic cruise, and ballistic missiles struck Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Lviv in the early hours of Friday morning, killing at least 16 and injuring about 100 others.

“We have never seen so many targets on our monitors simultaneously,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat told the media, adding “We can say that this was a massive attack.”

The Kremlin “apparently launched everything they have,” Ignat claimed on national television.

According to a Ukrainian official, the Kremlin used 18 Tu-95 strategic bombers to fire air-launched missiles overnight, but the alleged attack is yet to be confirmed by the Russian military.

Previously, the Kremlin has said that Kiev has a tendency to overstate the quantity of Kinzhal missiles deployed by Russia in the conflict, with the intention of asserting that it successfully intercepted these projectiles.

The Friday attack comes days after Kiev celebrated a successful bombardment of a Russian warship in the Crimean port city of Feodosia by air-launched cruise missiles.