KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces fired another rash of missiles and self-exploding drones in nearly a dozen provinces of Ukraine early Thursday, causing the first attack-related death of the year in Kyiv and killing at least 11 people in all.
The spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, announced the casualty toll in comments to Ukrainian television. He said the attacks also wounded at least 11 people.
The attacks adhered to Russia’s recent pattern of launching widespread strikes about every two weeks. However, the latest onslaught came a day after Germany and the United States upped the ante in Russia’s 11-month war by promising to send high-tech battle tanks to Ukraine and green-lighting other allies to do the same.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was killed during the attacks, the capital’s first such death since New Year’s Eve. Two others were injured, he said. The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, said Ukrainian air defenses shot down 15 cruise missiles heading to the area.
The regional prosecutor’s office in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia province said three people were killed and seven injured in a strike on an energy facility. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, said Thursday’s volley involved a total of 55 missiles, of which 47 were intercepted.
Self-exploding drones swept in overnight before the missile strikes, in what a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Southern Defense Forces said appeared to be a Russian attempt to overwhelm or distract Ukraine’s air defenses. As air raid sirens echoed across the country, civilians, some tugging pet dogs on leashes, poured into subway stations, underground parking lots and basements to seek shelter.
It was the first such barrage of Russian firepower across the country since Jan. 14.
Russia has carried out massive strikes on Ukrainian power plants and other infrastructure since early October, part of a strategy to try to hamper Ukrainian forces and put civilians in the cold and dark this winter, before what many experts predict could be a springtime offensive as more conscripts reach the battlefields.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said energy facilities were again targeted on Thursday by Russian forces who were “trying to cause a systemic failure in the energy system of Ukraine.” He acknowledged that some energy facilities had been hit, resulting in emergency outages, and repair teams were working to restore power supply as quickly as possible.
Maksym Marchenko, the governor of southern Ukraine’s Odesa region, said energy infrastructure facilities were damaged in his and several other regions, causing “significant problems with electricity supply.”
The regional administration in the nearby Kherson region, where Ukrainian troops recaptured the regional capital in November, said Russian shelling had killed two people and wounded five over the past day.
The attacks came a day after Germany said it would supply 14 high-tech