Russia, on Friday, December 29, launched 122 missiles and 36 drones against Ukrainian targets, killing about 30 civilians across the country.
At least 144 people were injured and an unknown number were buried under rubble during the roughly 18-hour onslaught, Ukrainian officials said on Friday.
A maternity hospital, apartment blocks, and schools were among the buildings reported damaged across Ukraine.
In the capital, Kyiv, 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.
A 72-year-old Kyiv resident, Kateryna Ivanivna, 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,” she told AFP.
Meanwhile, in Poland, authorities said what apparently was a Russian missile entered the country’s airspace on Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars.
READ ALSO: 45 injured, hospital damaged in Russian missile strikes on Ukraine
In the attack on Ukraine, the air force intercepted most of the ballistic and cruise missiles and the Shahed-type drones overnight, said Ukraine’s military chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Western officials and analysts had recently warned that Russia limited its cruise missile strikes for months in an apparent effort to build up stockpiles for massive strikes during the winter, hoping to break the Ukrainians’ spirit.
The result was “the most massive aerial attack” since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Air Force Commander, 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.
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-kilometre (620-mile) line of contact.
Ukrainian officials have urged the country’s Western allies to provide it with more air defences. Their appeals have come as signs of war fatigue strain efforts to keep support in place.
British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said the attack should stir the world to further action in support of Ukraine.
“These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy. We must continue to stand with Ukraine – for as long as it takes,” Sunak said on X, formerly Twitter.
United States President, Joe Biden, demanded Congress “step up” and overcome divisions on sending aid to Ukraine, saying that a massive Russian air attack demonstrates that the Kremlin hopes to “obliterate” the pro-Western country.
“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 without any further delay,” Biden said in a statement.
Ukrainian Foreign 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. 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,” he wrote on X.
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