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Russia destroyed an apartment block in northern Ukraine as a birthday “gift” to Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday, after overnight missile and drone strikes killed at least 12 people across the country, according to Ukrainian officials.
“Today, as a birthday ‘gift’ to Putin, the Russian army destroyed a residential building in Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region,” the Ukrainian president wrote on social media. Putin turned 74 on Wednesday.
Nine people, including three children, were killed and 34 wounded when a missile hit the five-storey building, Interior Minister Ihor Vyhivskyi said.
“There may still be people under the rubble,” Zelenskyy said. “First responders are working nonstop at the site – doing everything possible to find every person.”
He said strikes also killed people in Kremenchuk and Oleksandriya and damaged apartment buildings in Dnipro.
Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed it had carried out a massive overnight strike on industrial facilities involved in producing and storing missiles and drones, as well as port and ship repair facilities in the Odesa region. It made no mention of civilian casualties.
In Kyiv, two people died in a fire caused by the attack in the city’s densely populated Darnytskyi neighbourhood, according to mayor Vitaly Klitschko.
Zelenskyy described the assault as “one of the most vile strikes” of the nearly five-year conflict. “The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively,” he said.
‘State of fear’
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched at least 50 missiles and 130 drones overnight at regions including Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Poltava. It said it intercepted five ballistic missiles, 39 cruise missiles and more than 100 drones.
Zelenskyy said ballistic missiles were “the greatest challenge” and that new air defences were “a vital necessity”.
He had warned the public on Tuesday night that Russia was preparing a “massive” strike, particularly on energy infrastructure. Kyiv residents spent the night in subway stations with sleeping mats and blankets.
“The whole of Kyiv is in a state of fear,” Iryna Rybalchenko, a bank worker sheltering on a platform, told AFP.
Attacks on the capital have intensified in recent weeks as winter approaches. Scheduled power cuts were introduced on Tuesday to ease pressure on the battered grid, and Klitschko warned last week that the enemy was “tearing Kyiv apart” with strikes on bridges and energy infrastructure.
Additional sources • AFP, AP