Russia fires 75 missiles at Ukraine: which cities have been targeted, and how badly?

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General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, wrote on Twitter that 41 missiles fired by the Russians were shot down. “This morning, 75 missiles were launched. 41 of them were neutralised by our air defence,” he wrote.

Kyiv

The missile strikes on Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine, were the most potent since the early days of the war when Russian troops gave up their months-long attempt to capture the city. Among the places hit were a playground in downtown Kyiv and a university.

An Al Jazeera journalist in Kyiv said the city was hit by a volley of missiles as people, taken by surprise, took shelter in metro stations and parking garages.

Russian missiles struck nearly every region of Ukraine on Monday morning. (Source: NYT)

“Kyiv hasn’t experienced anything like this in months; people stopped paying attention to the air raid sirens, so it’s a very, very different reality this morning,” said reporter Rory Challands. “In fact, I would say nothing like this has happened since the start of the war, and even at the beginning of the war, there weren’t as many centr[al] strikes as have taken place today.”

Lviv

The northwestern city of Lviv, which had been spared the worst of the first phase of the war, was without electricity following aerial attacks, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Monday. Ternopil and Zhytomyr were among the other cities affected in the region.

Kharkiv

Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city close to the Russian border in the east, has been a site of blasts and invasions since February, and was hit by the volley of missiles that Putin’s army fired on Monday. Ukraine officials said internet facilities were affected by the blasts.

“Ukraine is providing enough fuel to telecom companies to save or restore internet and mobile communication in Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts, according to the Digital Transformation Ministry,” reported Ukraine-based media house The Kyiv Independent.

Zaporizhzhia

In Zaporizhzhia city in southeastern Ukraine, home to Europe’s largest nuclear plant, missiles hit residential areas on Tuesday morning, reportedly killing at least one person. A multi-storeyed apartment was hit, injuring many, said regional governor Oleksandr Starukh.

Earlier on Sunday, a missile strike on the city killed at least 13 people and injured 87 others, including 10 children, reported Reuters.

As per an report in The Associated Press, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his forces targeted key energy infrastructure and military command facilities with “precision weapons” in retaliation to what he claimed were Kyiv’s “terrorist” actions — a reference to Ukraine’s attempts to repel Moscow’s invasion, including an attack Saturday on a key bridge between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Putin alleged the bridge attack was masterminded by Ukrainian special services.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to US President Joe Biden, who condemned the attacks, on Monday. Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram afterwards that air defence was the “number 1 priority in our defence cooperation,” reported agencies.