Zelensky: Russia launched 81 missiles. It was a "tough night"

6 killed in intense Russian "retaliation" strikes on Ukraine

Ukrainians at the scene of two Russian missiles hitting buildings in the Zolochev region near the city of Lviv. EPAA

Russia launched a massive wave of missile strikes across Ukraine in the early hours of yesterday morning, killing at least six people, as well as cutting power to several cities, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying Russia had fired 81 missiles, adding: "It was a difficult night."

It was the first major missile strike since mid-February and ended the longest period of relative calm since Moscow began a campaign to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine five months ago.

Kiev said the missiles used included an unprecedented six of Russia's small arsenal of the Kingle hypersonic system.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the new wave of Russian missile attacks that resulted in power outages in parts of the country, including the capital Kiev.

Zelenskiy said on Telegram yesterday that "it was a difficult night."

Zelensky stated that Russia launched a total of 81 missiles throughout the country and "unfortunately also injuries and deaths" occurred.

Zelensky said the Russians had returned to their "miserable tactics"

The Ukrainian president added in a statement: "The Russians can only terrorize civilians. That's all they can do. But that won't help them. They will not escape responsibility for everything they have done," he said, speaking of the strikes that targeted 10 regions.

There were reports of strikes on energy facilities in other regions of Ukraine, including Kharkiv (northeast) and Odessa region (southwest).

The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Senegupov, said in a post on social media that "the Russians launched about 15 strikes on the city of Kharkiv and its region."

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had carried out a "massive retaliatory strike" on Ukrainian infrastructure in response to a cross-border attack last week that targeted a village in Russia's Bryansk region bordering Ukraine. The ministry said in a statement it had bombed Ukrainian defence companies and other "military infrastructure" with a range of weapons, including Kingle hypersonic missiles.

It said it had destroyed targets including drone bases and munitions production sites and disrupted the rail transport of foreign arms supplies through Ukraine. Villagers in Zolochev in Ukraine's western Lviv region carried a body inside a black plastic bag over the rubble of a house completely destroyed by a missile. Oksana Ostapenko said this was the home of her sister Halena, whose body is still buried under the rubble along with two other family members.

"They haven't recovered them yet. We hoped they were alive. But they are not."

Another civilian was killed by rockets in the central Dnipro region. Three civilians were reported killed by artillery fire in Kherson.

In the capital, Kiev, sirens sounded for seven hours, the longest strike warning during the Russian air campaign that began in October.

Ukrainian officials said it was the first time they had been hit by so many Kingle missiles, which Ukraine had no way to shoot down. Russia is believed to have only a few dozen of this model, which is several times faster than the speed of sound and is described by President Vladimir Putin as a weapon that NATO has no way to counter. Officials said the capital Kiev, the Black Sea port of Odessa and Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, were all bombed. Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko reported explosions in the southwestern part of the capital. He said on Telegram that 40 percent of consumers in Kiev were without heating. Evgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia's Wagner Group, said his fighters had captured the eastern part of Bakhmot. "Everything east of the Bachmut River was completely under Wagner's control," Prigozhen said.

In Ankara, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said yesterday that his country is continuing talks with the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine to extend the agreement on the transport of grain through the Black Sea, which is scheduled to expire on March 18, according to the Turkish news agency "Anatolia".