KYIV and LONDON — Russia’s military struck cities across Ukraine overnight, sending waves of missiles and drones in an hourslong attack that Ukrainian officials said may be among the biggest since the war began nearly two years ago.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it’s “never seen so many locations targeted simultaneously.”
The aerial attack began at about 11 p.m. on Thursday and lasted for several hours. It included at least 122 missiles and 36 drones, the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters work on a site of a building damaged after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 29, 2023.
AP
Civilian hubs, including Kyiv, were among the targets, military officials said. At least 31 total deaths were reported in at least three cities, with many others injured, local officials said.
“We will surely respond to terrorist strikes,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media. “And we will continue to fight for the security of our entire country, every city, and every citizen. Russian terror must and will lose.”
The attack hit targets including a “maternity ward, educational facilities, a shopping mall, multi-story residential buildings and private homes, a commercial storage, and a parking lot,” Zelenskyy said.
Along with Kyiv, the cities Russia struck included Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, he said.
Servicemen are seen through the broken windows of a city tram, damaged in Russia’s massive air attack in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 29, 2023.
Andriy Andriyenko/AP
“Unfortunately, there have been fatalities and injuries as a result of the strikes,” he said. “All services are working around the clock and providing the necessary aid. My condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. I wish a speedy recovery to those injured.”
The United Kingdom will send “hundreds of air defense missiles to restock” the British air defense systems given to Ukraine, the U.K.’s Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps announced in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, after Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.
“Putin’s latest wave of murderous airstrikes are a desperate and futile attempt to regain momentum after the catastrophic loss of hundreds of thousands of conscripts and ahead of the humiliation of his three-day war entering a third calendar year,” Shapps said in his statement.
On Dec. 29, 2022, the Russian military launched 70 missiles over Ukraine, marking one of the biggest missile attacks on Ukraine at the time. Ukrainian officials downed 58 of those missiles, they said at the time.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this story.
Source: abc news
