Russia Attacks Ukraine’s Largest Cities With Hypersonic Missiles

Russia has intensified its aerial bombardment of Ukraine in the latest escalation of the war between both countries.

On Monday, Ukraine’s two biggest cities, the capital Kyiv and Kharkiv in the northeast, were attacked by Russian hypersonic missiles overnight, killing four people and wounding nearly 100, Ukrainian officials said yesterday.

The attack followed the escalation of conflict between both countries as they carried out major aerial assaults against each other in recent days.

According to official reports from Ukraine, people sought shelter into subway stations during Monday’s attack when Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles hit the Ukrainian cities, the Associated Press reported.

Buildings, supermarkets and warehouses in Kyiv were affected by the assault, cutting power to parts of the city, according to CBS News partner network BBC News.

Russia’s Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missiles can travel 10 times the speed of sound, making them much harder to detect and destroy before impact. They are expensive, and Russia rarely uses them in Ukraine due to their limited stock, the AP reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Russia had launched “almost a hundred missiles of various types” against Ukrainian targets, and that at least 70 had been shot down.

“Russia will answer for every life taken away,” Zelenskyy said.

Neighbouring Poland is reportedly taking action to prevent any attacks on its territory. The country said it was activating two pairs of F-16 fighter jets and an allied tanker in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, “in order to ensure the security of Polish airspace.”

Last week saw some of the deadliest assaults by both countries on each other in the ceaseless war that has lasted for nearly two years since the outbreak of hostility when Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia last week conducted a large aerial bombardment of Ukraine, killing at least 41 civilians, according to the AP. The following day, Ukraine retaliated by shelling the Russian border city of Belgorod, killing at least 25 people.

“They want to intimidate us and create uncertainty within our country,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday of the Belgorod attack. „We will intensify strikes. Not a single crime against our civilian population will go unpunished,” he added.