WASHINGTON —
The Russian army invading Ukraine launched another missile and drone attack on Ukraine early on Friday (April 28), killing at least 16 people. Most of the victims were killed because two Russian missiles hit a residential building in central Ukraine. Killed, including three children.
Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, has also become the target of the Russian missile attack. This is the first time that the Russian army has used missiles to attack Kiev in the past two months. There have been no reports of any targets in Kiev being hit, but the Kiev municipality said Ukrainian air defenses successfully intercepted 11 cruise missiles and two drones over Kiev.
A nine-storey apartment building in the central city of Uman, 215 kilometers south of Kiev, was hit by a Russian missile. The Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior stated that 14 people were directly killed in the attack on the apartment building, including two children as young as 10. . Ukrainian police said 17 people were also injured when the missile hit the apartment building, including three children who were dug out of the rubble. Nine wounded were taken to the hospital and hospitalized for treatment.
The Associated Press pointed out in the report that although the missile and drone attacks caused serious casualties and losses to Ukrainian civilians, the entire front of the Russia-Ukraine confrontation and some battlefields where the two sides are currently fighting fiercely are even more tragic. What Russia and Ukraine are currently engaged in on the battlefield is basically a war of strangulation and a war of attrition.
Since the Russian military invaded Ukraine last February, it has frequently carried out long-range missile strikes on certain targets in Ukraine, and many of the hits were civilian targets, including critical infrastructure and residential buildings. Ukrainian officials and analysts believe Russia’s missile strikes were part of a deliberate strategy of intimidation, but Moscow has consistently denied Russian military strikes on civilian targets.
The Associated Press quoted survivors of the apartment building attack in Uman, Ukraine, as saying that it was still dark when the Russian missile hit the apartment building, so it was particularly terrifying.
A resident of an apartment building named Halyna told the Associated Press that after the missile hit the apartment building, the air wave shattered the window glass and covered her husband with broken glass. After they saw the fire outside the window, they ran out quickly, but first she wanted to see how her friend was doing in another unit not far away.
“I kept calling her, calling, but she just wouldn’t answer. I ran to ring the doorbell, and no one answered,” Halina told The Associated Press. She finally used a spare key to open the door of her friend’s apartment and found her friend lying dead on the floor of the apartment when she entered the apartment.
Another resident of the apartment building, Olha Turina, told The Associated Press that glass shards were flying from the missile explosion. Turina’s husband is currently fighting on the front lines, while one of her children’s classmates was missing in the missile attack.
“I don’t know where they are, and I don’t know if they’re still alive,” she said. “I don’t know why we’re going through all this. We’ve never bothered anyone.”
The Associated Press quoted rescuers at the scene as saying that a 75-year-old man was among the 11 people killed in the attack on an apartment building in Uman. She was originally living in another apartment building next to the apartment building that was attacked, and the shock of the missile explosion caused her internal bleeding.
The Associated Press reported that three body bags were still lying on the ground next to the smoking apartment building hours after the attack. Military, police, civilians and rescue workers are still searching for missing people in the rubble, while apartment building residents are moving what they can find from the damaged apartment building.
Serhii Lysak, governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, said a Russian missile attack on the city of Dnipro killed a 31-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter and wounded four others. A private home and a shop were damaged in the attack.
The Russian military launched missiles and drones on various parts of Ukraine after Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Zelensky called “long and meaningful” Assaulted. During the phone call, Xi Jinping also said that he would send representatives to visit Ukraine and other countries to facilitate a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the Russian attack on Ukraine on Friday showed the Kremlin was not interested in peace talks at all.
“Missile attack killing Ukrainian civilians in their sleep, including a 2-year-old baby, is Russia’s answer to all peace initiatives,” Kuleba tweeted. “The Russians must be driven out of Ukraine if peace is to be achieved.”