Kyiv was pummelled last night with Russian ballistic missiles and attack drones killing at least four as Russian President Vladimir Putin takes revenge for audacious Operation Spider’s Web.
Western regions like Lviv and Volyn, which border EU and NATO member Poland, were also bombarded as well as the Ukrainian capital.
It comes days after a dastardly mission to destroy nuclear-capable military planes at Russian air bases was pulled off by Ukrainian forces, personally overseen by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The brazen operation, 18 months in the planning, saw Kyiv smuggle more than 100 small drones into Russia, disguised in a false roof of wood cabins, park them near Russian air bases and then unleash them in a coordinated attack.
Footage showed decimated enemy planes in flames on the runway and Ukrainian security sources claimed to have taken out 41 aircrafts worth some £1.5billion.
Putin earlier this week told US President Donald Trump that he would retaliate, with the Kremlin sharing on Thursday it would choose ‘how and when’ to respond.
The Russian ambassador also laid blame at the British government for the attacks, alleging that the UK’s role in the strike could lead to ‘World War Three’. He offered no evidence for the claim.
Russian officials have not as yet commented on the overnight strikes that killed at least four people and wounded twenty in the capital – figures which were shared by mayor Vitali Klitschko said on social media.
Kyiv was pummelled last night with Russian ballistic missiles and attack drones with at least four dead as Putin takes revenge for audacious Operation Spider’s Web
Three of those killed were first responders from the state emergency service, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said (victims not pictured)
A charred crater in the side of a high-rise residential block in Kyiv was the leftover of one of Russia’s bombs
‘Kyiv came under another attack involving UAVs and ballistic missiles. Rescuers are responding to the aftermath at several locations across the city,’ the State Emergency Service of Ukraine wrote on Telegram.
A charred crater in the side of a high-rise residential block in Kyiv was the leftover of one of Russia’s bombs, with debris and broken glass strewn across the parking lot in front of the building.
Multiple fires broke out in various districts of the capital, with the attack also damaging train tracks in the surrounding Kyiv region, leading to lengthy delays, the national railway operator said.
Three of those killed were first responders from the state emergency service, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said.
‘They worked under fire to help people. Another nine rescuers were wounded. Some of them are seriously injured, and doctors are fighting for their lives,’ he wrote on social media.
Several strikes also hit western Ukraine’s city of Lutsk and Ternopil region.
‘Today, the enemy carried out the most massive air attack on our region to date. There are multiple strikes,’ Ternopil’s regional military administration chief Vyacheslav Negoda said.
At least 32 people were wounded in four different regions, including 15 in Lutsk, officials said.
Putin earlier this week told US President Donald Trump that he would retaliate against Ukraine’s dastardly Operation Spider’s Web
A man looks on from his window that has been shattered – with many others hanging by their frames – in a residential multi-storey building damaged after a Russian drone strike
Huge damage was made to apartment’s in the Ukrainian capital, with some having holes blown through the building
People rest in a metro station, being used as a bomb shelter, as Russian bombs rain above them
Other residents take shelter inside an underground parking as multiple fires broke out in various districts of the capital
Fire and smoke rise in the aftermath of a Russian drone strike that left at least four dead
Firefighters work at the site of an industrial facility hit by a Russian drone and missile strike in Ternopil
A police officer inspects parts of a presumably Shahed 136 drone at the site next to a residential building damaged during a Russian air strike
Russia said Ukrainian strikes overnight on Russia wounded three people in the western Tula region.
The Russian defence ministry said it downed 174 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 10 headed for the Russian capital, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Putin has repeatedly rejected a ceasefire, with an escalation in deadly attacks in recent weeks.
Russian negotiators have issued a host of sweeping demands on Ukraine if it wants to halt the fighting.
They include completely pulling troops out of four regions claimed by Russia, but which its army does not fully control, an end to Western military support, a ban on Ukraine joining NATO as well as any Western military contingents or hardware being based in the country.
But while delegates continued to stand-off in Turkey’s capital Istanbul, Zelenskyy said Operation Spider’s Web ‘will undoubtedly be in [the] history books’.
The attack was carried out exactly 29 years to the day after Ukraine handed over dozens of the same strategic bombers to Russia, along with up to 2,000 strategic nuclear warheads and 176 ICBMs in exchange for a promise not to be attacked, under the Budapest Memorandum.
In their most daring attack of the war to date, Ukrainian special forces first smuggled 117 first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones – which allow pilots to control them remotely through a live feed – into Russia.
The first-person view (FPV) Ukrainian attack drones were smuggled into Russia in wooden containers disguised as modular homes
A column of flames and black smoke rises over a targeted plane during Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb
Smoke billows in multiple locations across a Russian airfield following the extensive drone strikes
The close-up footage from various drones shows the moment of impact as they slammed into their targets
The footage was released as new satellite images of Belaya airbase have shown severe damage to at least three Tu-95s, according to analysts
The strikes took place on Sunday, with footage released today showing flames engulfing aircraft at four military airfields (pictured Belaya Airbase)
A satellite image shows Tupolev Tu-95 aircrafts destroyed following a series of Ukrainian drone strikes at the Belaya Airbase in Russia
New satellite imagery shows destroyed Russian bombers at the Belaya Air Base in the Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia
The videos show drones hovering over aircraft before striking
Flames erupt after a plane was struck by a Ukrainian attack drone on Sunday
Ukraine took out an estimated £1.5billion worth of Russian military equipment, including several Tu-95s (pictured)
Also destroyed were several Tu-22Ms (pictured), of which less than 500 were manufactured
Ukraine managed to destroy an A-50 Mainstay (pictured), which is used as an aerial command and radar centre
Head of the Ukraine’s Security Service Vasyl Maliuk looks at a map of an airfield, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in an unknown location in Ukraine
The weapons were smuggled in thousands of miles beyond the border, in wooden cabins, whose roofs had hidden compartments into which the small flying weapons were stashed.
They were loaded on to civilian trucks heading into enemy territory, their hired local drivers seemingly unaware of what they were carrying.
The strikes took place on Sunday, with footage released on Wednesday showing flames engulfing aircraft at four military airfields – Olenya in the Arctic region of Murmansk; Dyagilevo in western Russia; Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow; and Podmoskovye in Moscow.
Sources inside Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed the operation crippled 34 per cent of Russia’s long-range strategic bombers, including the nuclear-capable Tu-95s and Tu-22s, often used to launch cruise missiles into Ukraine.
Other aircraft which were hit included the nuclear-capable Tu-160 bomber, the An-12 transport plane and the Il-78 tanker, according to the SBU.
A share of the successfully targeted aircrafts were destroyed completely while others will take a long time to repair, the SBU said.
A truck filled with Ukrainian drones was seen in footage posted to Telegram channel Mash exploding in the Amur region
The vehicle had reportedly been driving along the Chita-Khabarovsk highway and caught fire while moving
A drone lifts off from wooden sheds loaded onto a truck that was driven to the perimeter of an air base, as smoke rises in the background, in Mal’ta, Irkutsk Region
One of the trucks with Ukrainian drones that exploded on the Chita-Khabarovsk highway was bought three months ago in the Sverdlovsk region
Some of the drones carried the mission out using AI and flew via a route that was programmed into them before the attack was launched.
At least some of the trucks belonged to former DJ Artem Timofeev, suspected by Russian law enforcement off being a Ukrainian agent.
A huge manhunt has been launched for his and his wife Ekaterina ‘Katya’ Timofeeva, 34, who is suspected to have aided him. The pair have gone missing, say reports.
