New massive Russian attack on Ukraine: Zelensky asks European air forces for help

Several explosions could be heard this morning at around 8.30 local time (05.30 GMT) in the centre of kyiv, amid a massive Russian missile and drone attack on several regions of Ukraine. Minutes later, two more rounds of explosions were heard from the heart of the Ukrainian capital.

Telegram channels reported explosions in other parts of the country. The Ukrainian Air Force warned that missiles of various types were heading towards different parts of the country.

The head of the Kiev military administration, Sergey Popko, confirmed that anti-aircraft defences were active in the outskirts of the capital and called on all residents of the city and the region to seek shelter in bunkers, basements or metro stations.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had “carried out a massive strike using long-range high-precision weaponry… on critically important energy infrastructure facilities” and claimed that “all the targets were hit”.

Local authorities reported at least four civilian deaths, one in the northwestern Ukrainian city of Lutsk and three others in the central regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomy, and the southeastern region of Zaporizhia.

According to information from the local regional military administration in the Poltava region in central Ukraine, an industrial infrastructure there was hit during the attack. At least five people were injured.

In the city of Lutsk, fragments from a drone shot down by Ukrainian air defenses damaged a multi-story building, local authorities said. The extent of the damage and the number of casualties were still being established, with the Ukrainian Air Force reporting in real time on its Telegram channel.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked European air forces for help in shooting down drones and missiles launched against his country, the target of this new wave of Russian bombings.

“More than 100 missiles of different types and a hundred [drones] Shahed” were used in “one of the largest” Russian attacks against Ukraine, including in western regions of Ukraine neighbouring or close to European countries, Zelensky said in a statement posted on Telegram.

“In various regions of Ukraine, we could do much more to protect lives if the air forces of our European neighbors worked together with our F-16s and together with our air defense,” Zelensky said. “If this partnership worked so well in the Middle East, it should work in Europe as well,” he added, apparently referring to US help to Israel shoot down Iranian missiles.

The day before, another Russian attack on civilian infrastructure in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, close to the Donetsk front, hit at least three journalists, of Ukrainian, American and British nationality, who were in a hotel, authorities reported, causing the death of a British security adviser from the Reuters news agency.

rml (efe, afp, last update 13:40 CET)