February 15, 2024
Russia mounts fresh missile attack on Kyiv, other cities
Russian forces launched missiles overnight, targeting Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, Ukraine’s officials said.
Officials reported explosions in the regions of Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Poltava.
In Kyiv, the local government said the “anti-aircraft defense destroyed all enemy missiles” aimed at the capital city.
Governor of the eastern Zaporizhzhia region said one person was injured and “an infrastructure object” was hit.
The Ukrainian air force reported that several Tu-95MS strategic bombers had taken off from the Olenya airfield in Russia’s far north, prompting a nationwide air alert which lasted for over two hours.
Ukraine’s air force later said that the “missile threat is over” in a Telegram post.
Earlier in the day, Reuters said that witnesses reported several explosions in different parts of Kyiv.
Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovy had also reported the sound of explosions in the western city near Ukraine’s border with Poland.
Russia and Ukraine have denied targeting civilians in attacks on each other’s territories, claiming that their goal is to destroy important military, power, and transport infrastructure.
Nearly two years ago, on February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the conflict between the two nations since 2014.
A US intelligence report, which was declassified in December, assessed that the war has cost Russia 315,000 dead and injured troops, or nearly 90% of the personnel it had when the conflict began. Kyiv treats its losses as a state secret.
mk,dh/dj (Reuters, AFP, dpa)
