Russia launches ‘massive’ attack on Ukraine cities with 120 missiles and drones

Russia launched more than 120 missiles and drones against targets in Ukraine this morning as Moscow rejected a “peace formula” proposed by President Zelensky as a basis for negotiations.

Explosions and air-raid sirens were heard in the capital Kyiv and several other cities during the latest bombardment, which caused widespread power cuts.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia was following an overnight assault by “kamikaze” drones with multiple attacks from airborne and sea-based cruise missiles.

The mayors of Kyiv, the eastern city of Kharkiv, and Lviv in the west reported today that Russian missiles had struck the cities. Air defence systems shot down several missiles, according to the Ukrainian military.

Most of Lviv was without electricity after fresh Russian missile strikes this morning, Andriy Sadoviy, the city’s mayor, said. “Ninety per cent of the city is without electricity,” he said on social media, and warned of potential water cuts. “We are waiting for more information from energy experts. Trams and trolleybuses are not running in the city.”

At least three people were wounded in the strikes on Kyiv, said Vitali Klitschko, the mayor. He warned of possible power cuts there and asked residents to charge their phones.

In Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, the city’s mayor, said officials were clarifying what had been hit.

“A massive air raid. More than 100 missiles in several waves,” Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelensky, wrote on Facebook. The head of Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region also reported Russian missiles in the air.

Vitaliy Kim, the governor of southern Ukraine’s Mykolaiv province, said five missiles were shot down over the Black Sea. The Ukrainian northern military’s command said two were downed over the Sumy region, located on the border with Russia in the country’s northeast.

Fragments from downed Russian missiles damaged two private buildings in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, the city administration said. An industrial facility and a playground in neighborhoods located across the Dnieper River also were damaged, city officials said. No casualties were reported.

Belarus said a Ukrainian missile fell on its territory, prompting Russia to send investigators to establish the cause of the incident.

President Lukashenko “was immediately informed”, the state news agency Belta reported. It said an S-300 rocket from Ukrainian territory landed between 10am and 11am local time but gave no location.

General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s military chief, said preliminary data showed Russia fired 69 missiles at energy facilities and his forces shot down 54 of them. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Zelensky, said Russia was aiming to “destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse”.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Monday that his nation wanted a “peace” summit within two months at the United Nations. He said Russia must face a war-crimes tribunal before direct talks with Moscow, adding that other nations should feel free to engage with the Russians.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, dismissed the summit idea today as “delirious” and “hollow,” describing the proposal as a “publicity stunt by Washington that tries to cast the Kyiv regime as a peacemaker”.

“It’s an attempt to give a semblance of legitimacy to a meaningless discussion that will not be followed by any concrete steps,” Zakharova said during a briefing.

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, had already rejected a Ukrainian peace plan suggested by Zelensky to end the war. The ten-point plan would require Russia to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and pull out all its troops.

Lavrov told Russia’s RIA news agency that Kyiv was not ready for real peace talks, as Ukraine must accept Russia’s annexation of four regions — Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhya in the south — occupied during this year’s invasion.

The prospect of driving Russia out of eastern Ukraine and Crimea with western help was “an illusion”, he added.

The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency has said that winter has forced fighting in Ukraine into a deadlock with neither Ukraine nor Russia making significant advances.

 “The situation is just stuck,” Kyrylo Budanov told the BBC. “It doesn’t move.”

The frigid weather across the 620-mile front line has slowed down the pace of Ukraine’s ground operations after it recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November.

Most of the fighting since has taken place around Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region.

Budanov said Russia was “now completely at a dead end” and that very significant losses, he believed, would lead the Kremlin to announce another mobilisation of conscripts.

However, he said that Ukrainian forces lacked resources to push the advantage and needed more advanced weapons from Western allies. “We can’t defeat them in all directions comprehensively. Neither can they. We’re very much looking forward to new weapons supplies, and to the arrival of more advanced weapons,” said Budanov.

Lavrov has said the Russian military was working on new plans to cut off supplies of weapons and ammunition sent from Western allies, and was due to send more mobilised troops to the front.

During an interview on Russian television he said: “We observe that Ukraine is receiving more and more and better Western weapons. I assume that they will make professional decisions on how to make these deliveries more difficult or, ideally, stop them altogether.”

Lavrov claimed that Russia’s continued assault on Ukrainian infrastructure was already hindering the delivery of new weapons.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces earlier said Russia struck more than 25 settlements around the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhya, causing civilian casualties and damaging civilian infrastructure.

Power cuts were also announced in the Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions as a precaution against damage to the national grid.

In Kyiv, Zelensky told parliament to remain united yesterday and praised Ukrainians for helping the West “find itself again”.

“Our national colours are today an international symbol of courage and indomitability of the whole world,” he said in an annual speech held behind closed doors.