In a pre-dawn attack on Friday, Russia fired missiles at cities across Ukraine, killing at least 12 people and injuring many more in the first large-scale air strikes in nearly two months.
The attacks come as Kyiv prepares to launch a counteroffensive to try to retake Russian-occupied territory.
The assault targeted civilian infrastructure, including a residential apartment building in the central city of Uman where a raging blaze took the lives of 10 people, including two children.
In the southeastern city of Dnipro, a missile struck a house, killing a two-year-old child and a 31-year-old woman, and wounding three others.
Russian officials have not revealed their targets in Friday’s attack, but Ukraine has accused Moscow of regularly striking civilian infrastructure, particularly energy facilities throughout the winter.
Moscow, however, denies deliberately targeting civilians, despite its air strikes and shelling killing thousands of people and devastating cities and towns across Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to respond firmly to the Russian aggression, writing in a Telegram post, “This Russian terror must face a fair response from Ukraine and the world. And it will.”
The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 21 out of 23 cruise missiles fired by Russia.
