Russia fired 81 cruise missiles on Ukrainian cities, say officials

Kyiv general says more than half the strikes were shot down

Russia unleashed a barrage of 81 missiles in morning attacks across Ukraine, Kyiv’s top general claimed in the aftermath of the strikes.

Strikes killed at least eight in Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said, while explosions were also reported in the cities of Lviv, Odessa, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Ternopil, Kremenchuk and Dnipro.

Initially the number of missiles was put at 75 but this was later upgraded by Kyiv.

By mid-afternoon on Monday, Ukraine’s defence ministry said Russia had fired 81 cruise missiles, and Ukraine’s air defences had shot down 43 of them. Police said at least eight people had been killed in Kyiv alone, and 10 across the country.

The slew of strikes came just hours after Vladimir Putin said an attack on a crucial bridge from Russia to Crimea over the weekend was an “act of terrorism” and blamed Ukraine.

Senior officials in Moscow on Monday said they should target those responsible for the attack, which damaged a key supply line for Russian forces holding out against a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region.

Monday’s strikes hit cities that have been free of attacks for months, including the capital and those in western Ukraine.

Black smoke rises from Kyiv after Russian strikes (ESN/AFP/Getty)

Volodymyr Zelensky said 11 important infrastructure facilities were damaged by explosions.

The mayor of Lviv, Western Ukraine’s largest city, said power was out in large parts of the city and emergency generators had to be employed to keep water running to residents.

Mr Zelensky also accused Russia of timing the missiles to hit cities during the morning rush hour to cause the maximum number of casualties.

Cars burn after Russian military strike in Kyiv (Reuters)

“They want panic and chaos, they want to destroy our energy system,” the Ukrainian president said in a video taken outside his presidential office.

“The second target is people. Such a time and such targets were specially chosen to cause as much damage as possible.”

Mr Zelensky agreed with a call from German chancellor Olaf Scholz for an emergency meeting of the G7 in response to the attacks.