In Sign That More Mayhem Is to Come, Russian Missiles Rain Down on Dnipro and Odessa

Cruise missiles fired by Russian strategic bombers struck the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro late Friday, killing at least three people and wounding 15, as air raid sirens went off across the country, officials said.The attack on Dnipro came a day after a Russian missile strike killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 200 in Vinnytsia, a city southwest of Kyiv, the capital. Early on Saturday, another missile struck a warehouse at Odessa, according to the Kyiv Independent. It was not immediately clear if it was a cruise missile. Russia’s military campaign has been focusing on the Donbas in Ukraine’s east, but Russian forces also have been pounding other parts of the country in a relentless push to claim territory and soften morale as the war nears the five-month mark.Ukraine’s air force said several Kh-101 cruise missiles fired from Tu-95MS strategic bombers over the Caspian Sea hit a factory in Dnipro, a major city on the Dnieper River. Four incoming missiles were intercepted, it said. Videos posted on social media showed fiery explosions and towering plumes of dark smoke.The regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, said the missiles hit the factory and nearby streets, killing at least three people and wounding 15.One of the dead was a bus driver who had just finished work and was returning to the depot when a missile struck, a member of the city council, Ivan Vasyuchkov, said. The emergency service said two vehicles were destroyed and 10 others were damaged. The missile strikes also set the factory on fire and blew out windows in nearby apartment buildings.Airstrikes also were reported in Kremenchuk, another city along the Dnieper south of Kyiv.The attack on Vinnytsia by cruise missiles launched from a Russian submarine was the latest to fan international outrage since President Putin launched the invasion on February 24. The dead included three children: a 4-year-old girl, and two boys, 7 and 8.The spokesman for the Ukrainian ministry of defense, Oleksandr Motuzyany, said that 30 percent of Russian missile strikes target military infrastructure, but that 70 percent hit residential areas with no military objectives. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Friday that Russian forces had conducted more than 17,000 strikes on civilian targets during the war so far, killing thousands of fighters and civilians and driving millions from their homes. After Thursday’s strike on Vinnytsia, nearly 200 people sought medical attention and 80 remain hospitalized, the emergency service said. Search teams were poring over two sites Friday — an office building with a medical center and a concert hall near an outdoor recreation area where mothers with children often stroll.“Russia deliberately hit civilians and all those responsible for the crime must be brought to account,” Vinnytsia’s governor, Serhiy Borzov, said, denouncing the “barbaric behavior by Russia that tramples on international humanitarian law.”A deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said three missiles were used.“There is no answer to the question why yesterday, and why in Vinnytsia,” Mr. Tymoshenko said. “We expect every second and minute that this could happen in any corner of Ukraine.”After initial silence about the missile strikes on Vinnytsia, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that its forces had struck an officers’ club — the Soviet-era use of the concert hall.The Russian defense ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said the Kalibr cruise missiles landed as the “military facility hosted a meeting between Ukrainian air force command and representatives of foreign weapons suppliers.” He said attendees were discussing prospective supplies of warplanes and weapons.“Participants of the meeting were eliminated in the strike,” Mr. Konashenkov said. His claim couldn’t be independently verified. Ukrainian authorities have insisted the site had nothing to do with the military.A Ukrainian singer reported that she had been scheduled to perform in the concert hall Sunday and that her sound engineer was killed in the missile strike. The singer, Roxolana, said on social media that another member of her crew was seriously injured.In the Donetsk region, the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, reported that eight civilians were killed and 13 wounded Friday when several cities came under Russian shelling. The Donetsk region and the neighboring Luhansk region — now nearly totally controlled by Russian forces — make up the broader Donbas.“The situation in the Donetsk region is exacerbating every day, and civilians must leave because the Russian army is using scorched-earth tactics,” Mr. Kyrylenko said. It appeared that the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk were next in line for attacks by Russian forces.Elsewhere, authorities in Mykolayiv said at least 10 explosions occurred in the strategic southern city early Friday, accusing Russia of hitting universities. Mykolayiv’s regional governor, Vitaliy Kim, posted a video of smoke rising over the strikes.

In Sign That More Mayhem Is to Come, Russian Missiles Rain Down on Dnipro and Odessa

More from the New York Sun

Israel and Lebanon Coordinate Aid Convoy to Christian Villages in Combat Zone

Emerging Claim That Targeting Civilian Infrastructure Is a War Crime Proves a Bridge Too Far

Stanford Calls Bluff on Students Using Jain Faith To Dodge Meal Plan

More from the New York Sun

Israel and Lebanon Coordinate Aid Convoy to Christian Villages in Combat Zone

Emerging Claim That Targeting Civilian Infrastructure Is a War Crime Proves a Bridge Too Far

Stanford Calls Bluff on Students Using Jain Faith To Dodge Meal Plan

South Florida GOP Congresswoman’s Immigration Reform Bill Sparks Backlash From Colleagues, Conservative Commentariat

Middle-Class Americans Prove the Biggest Winners From Trump’s Tax Cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill

In a Funeral for Economic Liberty, the Casket Cartel Seeks To Bury the Competition

The Double Tragedy of the Jewish Bund

Borrowing a Page From El Salvador’s Bukele, Ecuadoran President Welcomes American Troops To Assist With His Drug Gang Crackdown