Russia fired a barrage of missiles into Ukraine on Thursday night, killing at least four people in the capital Kiev and a ballistic missile hitting infrastructure in the country’s west, authorities said. It’s the latest onslaught to target the country amid sub-zero temperatures.
The airstrike came hours after the United States seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker on Wednesday, as Moscow reiterated that European forces deployed to Ukraine as part of a future peace deal are considered a “legitimate target.”
Authorities in the western city of Lviv reported multiple explosions and ballistic missile attacks on critical infrastructure facilities.
A statement from Ukraine’s Western Air Force Command said the missile was “moving along a ballistic trajectory at a speed of approximately 13,000 kilometers per hour.” It added that the type of missile will be determined after inspection of the parts.
13,000 kilometers per hour is about 10 times the speed of sound. One of the few projectiles capable of such speeds is Russia’s Oleshnik missile, which Putin boasts can fly at Mach 10. Russia fired its first Oleshnik missile into Ukraine in November 2024.
In Kiev, a CNN reporter said the attack began around midnight and began with multiple drone strikes against residential buildings.
As the street lights flickered on, much of the city was plunged into darkness, thick fog hung over the streets and temperatures plummeted to -5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit).
The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said four people were killed, 10 injured and “critical infrastructure” was damaged.
“There is no information” about casualties after the missile attack on Lviv, Mayor Andriy Sadovy wrote on Telegram. “Private facilities and residences in the city have not been affected,” he said.
Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks with drones and missiles, a tactic used earlier in the winter. The strike left tens of thousands of people without power or heat across the country as winter temperatures turned freezing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the purpose of these attacks was “to cause chaos and put psychological pressure on the population.”
The report came hours after the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine announced it had “received information regarding a significant airstrike that could occur at any time in the coming days.”
The attack also came Thursday, days after France and Britain pledged to send troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal, and as Russia further reinforced its long-standing position declaring Western forces in Ukraine “legitimate targets.” Russia has long opposed the presence of Western troops in Ukraine.
Then on Wednesday, the U.S. military boarded and captured a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean after weeks of pursuit on the high seas. This has increased tensions with Moscow and put further pressure on ally Venezuela.
Russia condemned the seizure, with its Transport Ministry saying that under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which the United States is not a signatory, “no state has the right to use force against a properly registered vessel within the jurisdiction of another state.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet commented on developments regarding tankers previously sanctioned by the United States for transporting illicit Iranian oil.
