A day after Volodymyr Zelensky said the war was “coming back to Russia” with an attempted drone strike in Moscow, the Kremlin launched an airstrike against the hometown of Ukrainian President Kryvyi Rih.
At least six people were killed, including a 5-year-old girl, and dozens more were injured when a pair of ballistic missiles hit a school building and a residential tower in Ukraine’s central city.
Zelensky said more than 350 people were involved in the rescue operation. Emergency services personnel were still looking for survivors under the rubble on Monday afternoon (31).
Residents said there were no air raid sirens before the missiles hit and destroyed significant parts of two buildings. Some said they had little time to seek cover.
See also: App announces curfews in Ukraine
“This time we didn’t have time to get our bearings,” said Natalia Balaba, a resident of Kryvyi Rih. “My husband was in the hall, he was knocked over by the wave.”
Balaba said all the windows in his apartment were broken and damage was everywhere.
“We were very scared, in great shock,” she said.
It is unclear why Russia attacked Kryvyi Rih. Ukrainian officials said there were no military targets nearby. The head of the local defense council, Oleksandr Vilkul, called the bombing a “terrorist attack”.
Russia carried out a similar attack on the city in June, killing 11 people.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on the situation at Kryvyi Rih. Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilian infrastructure, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
On Monday, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the Kremlin would step up its strikes in response to Kiev’s attempted drone strike against Moscow the day before that damaged a business and commercial development in the west of the capital.
Hours later, Zelensky said Ukraine “is getting stronger and the war is gradually returning to the territory of Russia, to its symbolic centers and military bases”.
“This is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process,” Zelensky said.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said that Kiev was targeting Moscow to impact the Russians who, since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022, felt that war was far away.
Earlier on Tuesday, a Moscow building that had previously been hit in drone strikes over the weekend was hit again, according to the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin.
“Several drones trying to fly to Moscow were shot down by our air defense. One flew to the same tower in town [de Moscou] last time. The facade of the 17th floor was damaged,” said the mayor.
Shoigu and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine’s attempted drone strikes on Moscow were meant to deflect an alleged lack of success on the battlefield.
“Against the background of an unsuccessful so-called counteroffensive, the Kiev regime – with the support of Western sponsors – has focused on carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in cities and towns of the Russian Federation,” Shoigu said.
No casualties have been reported in the attempted drone strikes in Moscow. However, Russian bombing raids in Ukraine hit civilian homes, schools, hospitals, churches and power plants, killing thousands of bystanders in the process.
(Anna Chernova, Maria Kostenko and Joshua Berlinger, from CNN contributed to this text)
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
