Russia has again launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on Ukraine. At least 10 people were killed. Among them, six people lost their lives in the city of Dnipro and four in the capital, Kyiv. BBC news.
According to the BBC report citing Ukrainian officials, several high-rise residential buildings collapsed in this attack carried out in the early hours of Tuesday (June 2). Dozens of people including some children were injured. Many more people are feared trapped under the rubble of the collapsed building in Kiev. Emergency rescue workers are conducting extensive operations to rescue them.
Moscow warned last week that it would launch a “systematic attack” on Ukraine in response to last month's drone strike on a dormitory in Ukraine's Russian-controlled Luhansk region. Note that 21 people were killed in that drone attack.
An airstrike warning was issued across much of Ukraine early Tuesday morning. A huge plume of smoke was seen rising into the sky from the center of Kiev after the attack.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged people to stay in safe shelters. “The enemy is attacking with ballistic missiles,” said Timur Tkachenko, the head of Kiev's military administration.
Mayor Klitschko also said that a gas station, a construction site, several high-rise residential buildings and two houses caught fire due to the attack. In addition, since the attack, there have been power outages throughout the city of Kyiv.
Apart from Kyiv, a Russian missile hit an industrial plant in the city of Zaporizhzhia.
Meanwhile, in response, Ukraine counterattacked at the same time inside Russia. The emergency response center in Russia's Krasnodar Krai region said a Ukrainian drone hit the Ilski oil refinery on fire. However, according to the emergency department, there were no casualties.
Earlier on Monday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued an intelligence warning of a major Russian attack in a video message and urged citizens to be vigilant.
Last week, Russia warned it would target military and decision-making centers in Kiev. Russia urged foreigners to leave Kiev after claiming that Ukraine deliberately attacked a dormitory in Starobilsk.
However, the Ukrainian armed forces claimed that they did not hit any civilian installations, but Russian military units.
Kiev has called Russia's threat 'nothing but shameless blackmail'. It also called on allies to increase pressure on Moscow.
Russia has launched a series of missile and drone strikes on Kiev since a brief ceasefire expired last month. Out of which 24 people including three children were killed in an attack on a multi-storey residential building.
On the other hand, three people were killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in the Moscow region. Zelensky called it a 'completely logical' move in response to Russia's attack.
