Russia pounded Ukraine with waves of missiles and drones in one of its most "vile strikes" on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, killing at least 24 people, including children, and damaging industrial facilities and energy infrastructure.
The heaviest death toll was in Pryluky in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, where a Russian missile obliterated a five-story residential building. At least 18 people, including four children, were killed there, local officials said.
Zelensky said the strike coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin's birthday.
"Today, as a birthday 'gift' to Putin, the Russian army destroyed a residential building in Pryluky," Zelensky said, adding that six more people were also killed in Kyiv, Oleksandria and Kremenchuk during the massive attack.
In total, Russia fired 70 missiles at Ukraine overnight — many of them high-velocity ballistic munitions — and dozens of Shahed attack drones, he said.
"The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively. This was one of the most vile strikes."
In Pryluky, an excavator and dozens of rescuers with shovels sifted through rubble at the site where several sections of the apartment block had collapsed.
Emergency workers used ladders to get to the upper floors of what remained of the building, and brought out 15 people alive as they worked their way down through the rubble. Around 55 people were wounded in the town, regional officials said.
"There's a lot of destruction, especially in the town center," said Danylo Savenko, deputy mayor of Pryluky, who said he had run to an air raid shelter with his wife as soon as he heard the missiles flying.
Big jump in reported drone interceptions
Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had carried out a "massive strike" on military-industrial facilities in Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions, using high-precision land-, sea- and air-launched weapons, as well as drones.
Ukraine's air force said it had downed just over 80% of the 46 jet-powered drones launched by Russia — a sharp increase from recent weeks when, on average, air defenses took down 50% to 60%.
Since the summer, Russia has used increasing numbers of the new high-velocity drones in round-the-clock attacks on Kyiv and other cities, with Ukraine's air defenses struggling to cope with their speed.
The air force did not explain the jump in the interception rate and did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Zelensky said the Russian ballistic missiles remained the major challenge for Ukraine, adding that he and his team were "every day looking for Patriot [missile interception] systems that can and must protect people's lives."
Ukraine received a new 1.2 billion euro ($1.34 billion) tranche from the European Union on Wednesday and will channel the funds towards defense needs, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said.
The U.S.-made Patriot system is the only weapon in Ukraine's arsenal capable of stopping high-velocity ballistic missiles but tight global supplies have been drained by the Iran war as well as the Ukraine conflict.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its targets included sites where Ukrainian defense company Fire Point manufactures and stores its Flamingo cruise missiles and medium- and long-range drones in Kyiv as well as regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Kharkiv.
Last week Zelensky said Ukraine had fired its first domestically made ballistic missile in combat, produced by Fire Point. In an interview with Reuters, he said he expected the company to have a longer-range FP-9 missile ready by the autumn. Fire Point has said that weapon will be able to reach Moscow.
People shelter overnight in Kyiv metro
Zelensky said Ukrainian troops hit four targets in Russia over the past 24 hours, including two Russian oil facilities and a training ground in the Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions.
In the Reuters interview, Zelensky said Ukraine would hit Russia's energy assets in response to Moscow's escalating strikes on civilian infrastructure.
Ukrainian officials and military intelligence shared warnings of the upcoming attacks on Wednesday, and many Kyiv residents took shelter in the city's deep underground metro stations.
Several loud explosions reverberated through the capital during the night.
"The metro is better because we live on the ninth floor of a high-rise, and it's really scary when you're on the ninth floor and missiles are flying at you," Lesia, a 49-year-old Kyiv resident, told Reuters.
Ukrainian officials said Russian ballistic missiles as well as the drones had targeted Kyiv.
Overnight air strikes on the southeastern city of Dnipro damaged an industrial facility, transport infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia and apartment buildings in Kremenchuk, regional officials said on the Telegram messaging app.
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