Ukraine suffered in the night from Thursday to Friday Russian missile attacks on Kiev and several other cities, which killed at least two people and hit a residential building.

According to the Kiev municipality, 11 cruise missiles fired from strategic bombers were shot down in the sky of the capital, as well as two drones, without causing any significant casualties or destruction.

In contrast, in Dnipro, a large city in east-central Ukraine, the Russian attack killed two people, according to Mayor Borys Filatov. Missiles "again killed civilians in Dnipro. A young woman and a three-year-old child died," he said on Telegram.

Gutted building in Uman

In Uman, a city of some 80,000 inhabitants in the center of the country, a video broadcast by Ukrainian media shows a gutted apartment building with a lot of rubble on the ground. "An enemy missile hit a residential building. Information on the victims is being clarified," Zoya Vovk, spokesman for the regional police, said on Telegram.

According to regional governor Igor Tabourets, Uman was hit by two cruise missiles, one hitting a residential building and the other a warehouse. "We have five wounded, they are in hospital," he said on Telegram.

In Kiev, a power line was cut after debris fell and damaged the roadway, authorities said. "No civilian casualties or damage to residential buildings or infrastructure were reported" in the capital, the head of Kiev's air defense forces, Sergei Popko, was quoted as saying by the administration.

Rarer attacks

While Russia regularly bombed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure last winter, massive strikes had become rarer in recent months. It was the first massive missile attack on the Ukrainian capital since early March.

Russian strikes during the winter targeted energy infrastructure in particular, regularly causing massive power and running water cuts. These attacks involved dozens of missiles.

This Russian tactic, however, did not bend Kiev. Ukraine's air defense system has been bolstered in recent months by the delivery of Western equipment, crucial to the country's war effort. In April, Kiev received the sophisticated American Patriot systems. The Ukrainian capital was the target last week of an attack by 12 Iranian-made drones, eight of which were shot down, without causing casualties.

Most of the fighting is now taking place in the east for control of the industrial region of Donbass, and in particular in the city of Bakhmut, almost completely destroyed by the clashes. Ukraine says it has been preparing for months a counter-offensive aimed at pushing Russian forces out of the territories they currently occupy in the east and south.

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