KYIV: Ukraine received no early warning from its partners about a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv in which five missiles hit civilian infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday in a post on X.
Zelensky characterized the barrage on the capital as “particularly vile,” and emphasized that receiving intelligence from Ukraine’s partners on such ballistic missile attacks “helps save lives, and this is one of the most critical issues.”
“This is precisely what helps prevent people from being killed — when there is an early warning about ballistic missiles,” he wrote. He did not apportion blame for the lack of warning.
Russia’s war in Ukraine hasn’t seen major shifts on the ground since last year, but Ukraine is struggling to fend off Moscow’s intensified aerial attacks on cities that include speedy ballistic missiles and high-flying jet-powered drones.
Zelensky said Russia had attacked Ukraine with more than 100 weapons since Monday evening. Among the damage was a residential building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv that was destroyed, killing four people despite an all-night rescue operation, he said.
Russia has increasingly used attacks on civilian infrastructure such as energy facilities to deny Ukrainians power, heat and running water during the 4 1/2-year war, hoping to wear down public support for Ukraine’s response to Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
Zelensky says Ukraine is respecting energy ceasefire
US President Donald Trump has blamed Ukraine’s earlier strikes on Russian oil refineries for record US diesel prices — rather than the US-led war in Iran — and struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to import diesel from Russia in an attempt to bring fuel prices down ahead of US midterm elections.
Meanwhile, Trump claimed on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed on an “energy ceasefire” in which both parties would refrain from striking each other’s energy infrastructure. Russia has not confirmed the existence of such a deal, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday saying only that “contacts on this matter continue.”
Zelensky on Tuesday said Ukraine had not struck Russian oil refineries or other energy sites in the two days since Trump announced the purported deal. He criticized Moscow for what he said were Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities and critical infrastructure in the time since Trump’s announcement.
“These are absolutely clear signals that they have no intention of refraining from strikes on Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
The claim that Ukraine has halted its strikes on energy sites could not be independently verified, but neither Russian officials nor media have reported Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries since the energy truce was announced.
Strikes on Kharkiv kill 4, injure 41
Russian strikes across Ukraine caused injuries and deaths overnight Monday and into Tuesday, with Zelensky saying that in addition to the four deaths in the apartment building in Kharkiv, 41 people were wounded in the city in one evening alone.
A woman was wounded in a Russian strike on a private home in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, the Kyiv city military administration said, while a Russian drone hit a residential building in the village of Murovane, near the western city of Lviv, during a morning attack Tuesday, Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said.
One person was killed in the Fastiv district of the Kyiv region and at least two others were hurt in a Russian attack on the area, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration.
A Russian drone struck an educational institution in the center of Rivne in northwest Ukraine, wounding 14 people, according to Oleksandr Koval, head of the Rivne regional military administration.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that its forces overnight “launched coordinated strikes using ground-based precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles against Ukrainian military-industrial facilities, logistics centers, railway and port infrastructure, as well as vessels involved in delivering military cargo to Ukraine.”
The ministry also said a bulk carrier headed to the port of Mykolaiv with military cargo on board was hit in the estuary of the Bug river along the Black Sea.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday said its air defenses overnight shot down 604 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and the Sea of Azov.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 417 drones targeted the Moscow region. Most were downed far away, while 65 were intercepted as they approached the Russian capital.
A school, two private houses and a car were damaged in the attack in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow, Gov. Vladislav Shapsha said.