Russia strikes Ukrainian cities ahead of expected Kyiv counteroffensive
Mike Brest
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Russian forces launched a pre-dawn aerial assault against Ukrainian targets on Monday as fighting between the two sides has seemingly intensified ahead of Kyiv’s highly anticipated counteroffensive.
Nearly three dozen civilians were injured in the Dnipro region, which is in the central-eastern district of Pavlohrad, according to local officials. Serhiy Lysak, the local governor, said the youngest person injured in the attack is 8 and that two women are in intensive care units for their injuries. Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia launched 18 Kh-101 and Kh-555 cruise missiles at Ukraine from the area near the Caspian Sea, 15 of which they were able to intercept.
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The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy reported damage to the electrical grid in Dnipro following the blasts.
“There is significant damage to distribution grids. As a result, some consumers in Dnipro city and the region have lost power,” the ministry’s statement said, adding it will take “several days to repair.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the strikes, issuing a statement Monday detailing Russia’s armed forces “carried out a group missile strike with long-range airborne and sea-based high-precision weapons against the facilities of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.”
Shelling was also reported in Kherson, leaving at least one person dead and three injured, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on national television on Monday that the military was “reaching the finish line” in preparing for their highly anticipated counteroffensive to take back Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and that commanders will decide “how, where, and when.”
The two sides have seemingly escalated the fight away from the front lines in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.
On Friday, a Russian rocket hit an apartment building in central Ukraine, killing at least 23 people, while there were strikes in Russian territory over the weekend. Two Ukrainian drones hit a Russian oil depot in Sevastopol, Crimea, resulting in a massive fire that sent smoke billowing into the air.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern command, said the attack in Crimea, which is Ukrainian territory that has been Russian-occupied since 2014, is part of preparations for “the broad, full-scale offensive that everyone expects.”
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Ukraine is hoping to liberate Crimea, even though U.S. officials have indicated the overwhelming difficulty of such a victory.
“The world should know: Respect and order will return to international relations only when the Ukrainian flag returns to Crimea, when there is freedom there, just like everywhere else in Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month. He reiterated over the weekend his plea for modern Western fighter jets, a request that the Biden administration has repeatedly denied.