Ukraine: At least 30 killed as Russia hits cities with huge aerial barrage
Russia has launched one of its biggest aerial barrages on Ukraine since the start of the invasion, killing at least 30 people and wounding 144 others.
Several cities were struck overnight as Russia launched more than 100 missiles and dozens of drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, with most of them being shot down.
Ukrainian Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk suggested the strike was Russia’s largest aerial attack since the war began in February 2022, describing it on Telegram messenger as “the most massive attack from the air”.
Army chief General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said the attack targeted critical infrastructure and industrial and military facilities.
Read more: Ukraine-Russia war latest
Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was among the cities targeted
The Western military alliance says it is “monitoring the situation” in Poland after a suspected Russian missile entered its airspace briefly during the bombings.
The missile is thought to have flown over Polish territory for three minutes before moving back into Ukrainian airspace. Polish President Andrzej Duda has since convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council.
Poland is a NATO member and would expect to be backed by other countries including the US and UK if it is attacked.
“I spoke with President Andrzej Duda about the missile incident in Poland,” said NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg.
“NATO stands in solidarity with our valued ally, is monitoring the situation and we will remain in contact as the facts are established. NATO remains vigilant.”
Damage was reported at a maternity hospital in the central city of Dnipro and buildings in the western city of Lviv, the southeastern port of Odesa and city of Zaporizhzhia, and the eastern city of Kharkiv.
At least three people were killed in the capital Kyiv, with 10 people trapped under rubble at a warehouse damaged by falling debris, said the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko.
In Boyarka, a city near Kyiv, the debris of a shot-down drone fell on a home and started a fire.
Andrii Korobka, 47, said his mother was sleeping next to the room where the wreckage landed and was taken to hospital suffering from shock.
“The war goes on, and it can happen to any house, even if you think yours will never be affected,” Mr Korobka said.
At least three other people were killed in the Black Sea port city of Odesa and at least 15 were injured, including two children, as missiles hit residential buildings, the regional governor for the area said.
At least five people were killed in Dnipro, where missiles hit a shopping centre, a privately-held home and a six-storey residential building, and at least two were also killed in Kharkiv and Lviv.
Three schools and a kindergarten were also damaged in Lviv, the city’s mayor Andrii Sadovyi said.
Missiles also hit several infrastructure facilities in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where at least one person was killed, the interior minister said.
“Today, millions of Ukrainians awoke to the loud sound of explosions. I wish those sounds of explosions in Ukraine could be heard all around the world,” foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said, calling for Kyiv’s allies to step up their support.
The aftermath of an attack in Kyiv
Apartment buildings damaged in Odesa. Pic: AP Photo/Artem Perfilov
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat claimed Russia used hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles, including X-22 type, which are extremely hard to intercept.
“Russia attacked with everything it has in its arsenal,” President Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
The president initially reported that around 110 missiles were fired, “most of which were shot down”.
Ukraine later claimed Russia had launched 122 missiles and 36 drones, with the military managing to down 27 drones and 87 cruise missiles.
It comes days after Ukraine downed 32 of 46 Iranian-made drones deployed by Russia in an overnight air strike.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s military said most of the rest of the drones hit the frontline, mainly in the Kherson region.
A firefighter battling a blaze in Kyiv
According to the Ukrainian air force, the previous biggest assault on the country was in November 2022, when Russia launched 96 missiles against Ukraine. This year, the biggest was 81 missiles on 9 March, air force records show.
Ukraine has been warning for weeks that Russia could be stockpiling missiles to launch a major air campaign targeting the energy system.
Last year, millions of people were plunged into darkness when Russian strikes pounded the power grid.
Hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles were reportedly used in the bombings
The energy ministry reported power outages in four regions after the air attack.
In the Lviv region, which borders Poland, impacts were confirmed at a critical infrastructure facility, the president’s office said, declining to say which one.
“The enemy targeted social and critical infrastructure,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
A warehouse went up in flames in Kyiv
A car outside a maternity hospital in Dnipro was destroyed in the airstrikes
The attack comes days after Ukraine struck a Russian warship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia.
It also follows a $250m (£196m) military aid package to Ukraine from the US, which included air defence ammunition.
General Sir Richard Barrons, former commander of Joint Forces Command, told Sky News the massive overnight assault was “relatively unusual”.
He said: “Since the invasion began, Russia has used about 11,000 missiles and drones. So, 110 is quite a large number for one night’s work.
“Russia can probably make about 65 cruise missiles a month now and it imports others from places like Iran, so it was a major effort. But then the sinking of the landing ship was a major disaster for the Russian military.”
Emergency crews pulling a man to safety from rubble
General Barrons believes the bombings were a message to Ukraine that “Russia can hit anywhere in the country and it will focus on civilian targets”.
He added: “But also a message to Ukraine to keep their air defence around the cities and not on the frontlines.”
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Sky News’ military analyst Sean Bell said Russia could have launched the attacks to “make life as miserable as possible” for Ukrainians during the harsh winter months.
He added that the airstrikes may also have been in retribution for the landing ship attack.
Mr Bell said: “At the start of 2023 it would have been full of expectation. President Zelenskyy was being offered lots of weapons.
“He’d shown that he could push Russia out of Ukraine, but by the end of the year, frankly, the spring offensive really hasn’t achieved much.
“And at the year’s end, Russia is actually on the front foot at the moment.”
Emergency crews in Odesa. Pic: AP Photo/Artem Perfilov
Mr Bell believes Ukraine’s future lies in Western support.
He added: “And bluntly, this last package of aid has just arrived, £200m. Unless the EU and the US unblock the aid that’s spare there, then Russia will become emboldened. President Putin will become much more resilient and robust about his offense.
“But it’s almost certainly not the end to 2023 that President Zelenskyy might have hoped for at the start of the year.”
World
‘Daylight robbery of land – sanctioned by Israeli authorities’: Inside ‘terrorised’ West Bank village
What’s unfolding in the Palestinian village of Ras al-Ayn is more than a land dispute – according to human rights groups, it is the systematic displacement of an entire community.
Activists on the ground report a surge in violence and intimidation by Israeli settlers aimed at driving Palestinian families from their homes.
Footage captured by Rachel Abramovitz, a member of the group Looking The Occupation In The Eye, shows activists trying to block settlers from seizing control of the village centre.
Palestinians say they are being forced off their land by intimidation
“They gradually invade the community and expand. The goal is to terrorise people, to make them flee,” Ms Abramovitz said.
Our visit comes as Israel said it would establish 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank – including new settlements and the legalisation of outposts already built without government authorisation.
The settler movement traces back to 1967, when Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War.
Settlements began as small, often unofficial outposts. Over the decades, they’ve grown into towns and cities with state-provided infrastructure, roads, and security.
Today, 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in communities considered illegal under international law – a designation Israel disputes.
Since the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 and Israel’s subsequent 19-month military bombardment of Gaza, violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has escalated sharply.
According to the UN and human rights groups such as B’Tselem, the overwhelming number of these attacks are carried out with impunity, further pressuring Palestinians to flee.
Salaam Ka’abneh says they face daily assaults
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Nine of Gazan doctor’s children killed
Salaam Ka’abneh, a lifelong resident of the Bedouin village of Ras al-Ayn in the Jordan Valley, says his family has lived on the land for more than 50 years. He fears they could be forced to leave.
Mr Ka’abneh said: “About a year and four months ago, settlers cut off our access to water and grazing land. They also stole more than 2,000 sheep from us in the Tel Al-Auja compound. We face daily assaults, day and night.
“They terrorise our children and women, throwing stones, firing bullets, and creating chaos with their vehicles. We are under siege. We no longer have access to pasture or water, and our sheep remain caged.”
Footage from the area shows settlers driving freely through Palestinian communities, some armed.
While the Israeli army officially governs Area C of the West Bank, where Ras al-Ayn is located, human rights groups say settler violence almost always goes unchecked.
Under international law, an occupying power is obligated to protect civilians under its control. But Sarit Michaeli of B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, says Israel is failing to uphold its responsibility.
“Israel doesn’t hold settlers accountable. On the contrary – settlers know that if they act violently, they’ll receive support from all branches of the government. There’s full impunity. In fact, it’s more accurate to say settlers function as a branch of the government.
“It’s daylight robbery of land – sanctioned by Israeli authorities,” Michaeli continues.
“And it amounts to ethnic cleansing – displacing large parts of the Palestinian population to make the area available for Israeli use.”
To understand more, we travelled to a hilltop outpost occupied by settlers overlooking Salaam’s village. But we did not get far. Our car was quickly surrounded, and the atmosphere turned hostile.
Salaam Ka’abneh and his family has lived on the land for more than 50 years
It was clear: we were not welcome. We left with no answers but with a deeper understanding of the fear these Palestinian communities live with daily.
International pressure is growing. The British government recently imposed sanctions on several settlers, including Daniella Weiss.
Read more from Sky News:
Key events since 7 October Hamas-led attack
Hamas’ Gaza chief ‘eliminated’
Known as the ‘godmother’ of the settler movement, Weiss has been a key figure in expanding settlements across the West Bank.
“There will never be a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Never,” Weiss declares. “We annex with facts on the ground. The goal is to block any possibility of a Palestinian state in the heartland of Israel.
“If Netanyahu wanted to stop me, he could.”
The Israeli government calls allegations of ethnic cleansing “baseless and without foundation”.
But human rights groups argue that what’s happening in the West Bank has gone far beyond creeping annexation.
Palestinian land is rapidly being consumed by settlements, military zones, and settler outposts – shrinking the space in which a future Palestinian state might one day exist.
You can watch a Sky News special programme on the conflict in Gaza on TV and mobile, at 9pm UK time, on Thursday.
World
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World
Trump doubles down on Putin criticism – as Russia offers Ukraine a date and location for peace talks
Donald Trump has doubled down on his criticism of Vladimir Putin – adding he will know soon if the Russian leader is just “tapping” him along.
The US president told reporters at the White House that he believed his counterpart in Moscow may be intentionally delaying ceasefire talks, while he also expressed disappointment at heavy Russian bombing over the weekend.
While Mr Trump has so far stopped short of imposing sanctions – to avoid, he says, “screwing up” negotiations – he warned his stance could change.
Ukraine Q&A: Are we any closer to war ending?
The president said: “We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not, and if he is, we’ll respond a little differently,” adding that he “can’t tell you” if Mr Putin wanted peace.
Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters
His comments in the Oval Office came minutes after Russia’s foreign minister announced that the Kremlin had offered Ukraine a second round of talks on 2 June in Istanbul.
Kyiv did not immediately respond to the proposal, which Sergei Lavrov said would see Moscow hand their proposals for a potential peace deal directly to Ukraine.
“We hope that all those who are sincerely, and not just in words, interested in the success of the peace process will support holding a new round of direct Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul,” Mr Lavrov added.
Later on Wednesday, Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said his government was “not against” further meetings, but called for Russia to deliver its memorandum to Kyiv beforehand.
Meanwhile, Mr Lavrov also hit out at Germany for agreeing to finance the production of long-range missiles in Ukraine, accusing Berlin of showing it is “already a participant in the war”.
However, German leader Friedrich Merz declined to say that his country would hand over the Taurus missiles that Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy – who was in Berlin on Wednesday – has long wanted.
Ukraine’s need for ammunition has become all the more urgent after Russia launched some of the largest aerial assaults of the war so far over the weekend.
Read more:
Would ‘smart’ missiles allow Ukraine to hit key bridge?
Lavrov accuses West of secrecy over strikes
Russia said it had downed 296 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions overnight, while Ukraine said it had struck several weapon production sites.
Kyiv, in turn, said Moscow had launched 88 drones and five ballistic missiles since Tuesday.
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