Russian forces have carried out a large-scale missile and drone strike against military-related targets in Ukraine in response to terrorist attacks by Kiev, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
The overnight raid focused on defense industry facilities in the capital, Kiev, parts of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions still under Ukraine’s control, as well as in Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnitsky, and Sumy regions, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fuel and transport infrastructure facilities used by Ukrainian forces and military airfields were also hit, it added.
Land- and sea-based precision weapons, including hypersonic missiles and drones, were deployed during the attack, the ministry said.
“The objectives of the strike has been achieved. All designated targets were hit,” it stressed.
Multiple videos have been posted on social media, purporting to show explosions in various parts of Ukraine. Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko confirmed partial blackouts in several districts of the capital during the raid.
Moscow previously warned it would carry out “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, including drone production facilities, command posts, and “decision-making centers,” in response to a terrorist attack in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22.
Ukrainian forces struck a college dormitory in the town of Starobelsk in several waves of drone attacks late at night while students were asleep, killing 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring more than 40 others.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the Ukrainian leadership had opened “a new chapter in its crime spree” with the attack on Starobelsk, adding that those responsible would face “well-deserved and inevitable punishment.”