Russia pounds Ukraine in new air attack, killing 8, including children

KYIV - Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones, killing eight people in overnight attacks on July 30, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, decrying shortages of air defence supplies and urging allies to help.

Russia launched more than 70 missiles and about 280 drones, Zelensky said in a statement on the Telegram app.

The capital Kyiv and the western region of Lviv on Ukraine’s border with Poland were the main focus of the attack, the Ukrainian air force said.

Poland, a European Union and NATO member, scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace during the attack.

Ukraine’s foreign minister said a Russian cruise missile crossed into Poland, after authorities there found a crater and debris in a field following reports of an explosion.

“So far, eight people have been reported killed across the country,” Zelensky said, posting pictures of destroyed houses, fires and rescuers clearing through rubble.

“Dozens of people were injured, and everyone is receiving the necessary medical care.”

Zelensky added that only the “extraordinary expertise” of Ukrainian air defence units helped save lives when air defence missiles were not provided or delivered slowly.

Air defence units shot down 55 missiles and 265 drones but only one of nine ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s air force said, adding that 11 missiles and 17 drones hit targets at 20 locations.

The US-made Patriot air defence system is the only weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of downing Russia’s ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound, but they are in chronically short supply globally.

A day of mourning was announced for July 31 in a village in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where six people, including three children, were killed, regional officials said.

One person was killed in Kyiv, and another in Poltava in central Ukraine, officials said.

In Kyiv, where air alerts lasted more than five hours overnight, thousands of people sheltered in metro stations.

Rescuers pull people out of destroyed building

In Lviv, a Russian missile hit a residential apartment building but did not explode, the city’s mayor said.

Emergency workers were pulling people out of the building, which suffered damage to its roof and upper floors.

“I was terrified watching the rescuers go beneath those concrete slabs,” resident Marko told Reuters as rescuers pulled a boy from the damaged building.

“I’m proud that we have rescuers who aren’t afraid to go into situations where those slabs could collapse on them.”

About 30 people, including three children, were injured in the city where two residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens were damaged, city officials said.

Russia’s defence ministry said on July 30 its forces struck what it called military facilities across Ukraine, from Kyiv to Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk, as well as three cargo ships.

A crater is seen at the site of a Russian missile strike on a market in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 30. PHOTO: EPA

With the war in its fifth year, both Russia and Ukraine have escalated their long-range air strikes, while movement on the 1,200km frontline has slowed, as the predominance of aerial drones makes any major breakthrough difficult.

Russian officials said a warehouse of Russian top online retailer Wildberries caught fire in the western city of Penza after a Ukrainian drone attack.

Regional governor Oleg Melnichenko said on Telegram that one person was injured and about 200 were evacuated from the site, a day after the company, which has become a frequent target of Ukraine’s strikes, evacuated another facility in central Russia.

Another Wildberries facility, in Sarapul in Russia’s Udmurtia region, also caught fire after a drone attack, the company said.

The losses add to the strain on Russians who have turned to online sales as a main source of income, while Ukraine continues hitting energy facilities and refineries, deepening the fuel crisis.

Top Ukrainian officials say that the strikes were aimed at reducing Russia’s budget revenues and its economic ability to continue with its war in Ukraine.

Russia downed a total of 258 drones overnight, its defence ministry said. That figure covers Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war following Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.