Representative image ( AP photo credit: AP )
More than 30 cities and villages in Ukraine were hit immediately into Sunday as a result of Russia’s largest underwater assault since the war started. 367 missiles and drones were down in a second straight nights of severe bombardment, according to the news agency AP, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens, according to the information agency. Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, confirmed that Russia had deployed 69 rockets and 298 drones, including Iranian-made Shahed UAVs. He was quoted as saying,” It was the most massive strike in terms of the number of air attack weapons on the Ukrainian territory since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022,” according to AP. What is typically a festive occasion turned into a day of mourning as a result of the strikes ‘ co-occurrence with Kyiv Day, a national holiday. In Kyiv only, 16 people died and 16 were hurt, and drone debris damaged both private and dormitory structures. Andrii Sybiha, the foreign minister, described it as” a challenging Sunday morning in Ukraine after a sleepless night.” Three children, ages 8, 12, and 17, were among the dying in the Zhytomyr area, according to emergency officers, while four people were killed in Khmelnytskyi and one in Mykolaiv. In a number of districts, fires broke out, and some homes were leveled in the village of Markhalivka. Liubov Fedorenko, a native of Mariupol, told AP,” The city looks like Bakhmut, like Mariupol.” Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, called for tougher sanctions and accused Russia of “deliberate attacks on regular places.” This cruelty cannot be stopped, he wrote on X,” Without absolutely strong pressure on the Russian command, this brutality cannot be stopped.” One of the few ways of cooperating in then stalled efforts to reach a ceasefire was the second major prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, which came just hours before the attacks. Each area brought house 303 more men on Sunday, according to Russia’s defense government. That was followed by the release of 390 soldiers and civilians on Friday and 397 on Saturday, making it the largest switch in more than three years of conflict. In a video shared by the Ukrainian defense department, Olena, who was freed from her father Yuriy after six months in the country, declared,” This is the best day.” Despite these transfers, conflict still persists. The 1, 000-kilometer forward column is still engaged in battle. Ukraine claimed to have intercepted 266 drones and 45 weapons, but at least 22 sites were also hit, according to the BBC. Russia also asserted that it had intercepted more than 100 Russian drones immediately, some of which were close to Moscow. Buildings in the Tula region of Russia were hacked by aircraft dust, but no injuries were reported, according to Reuters. Hope remain lagging in diplomacy. Russia hasn’t accepted the proposals for a ceasefire, despite the prisoner swap at the Istanbul meet. The universe may go on for a trip, but the conflict continues, according to Zelenskyy.
