At least five people were killed and dozens injured across Ukrainian cities early Thursday in a barrage of missile and artillery strikes that appeared to back up President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s contention at the United Nations that Russia is a “terrorist state.”
Moscow’s largest fusillade in more than a month came on a day when Zelenskyy was trying to rally support in Washington while losing the military assistance of neighboring Poland amid a growing trade dispute.
The widespread Russian attack killed five and wounded 10 in the southern Kherson province, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said, injured seven in Kyiv and wounded 11 in the central city of Cherkasy as damaged buildings that included a hotel turned into tons of rubble. Only Kherson among those stricken areas is near the front line.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it hit military targets with precision-guided missiles and drones, but at least six strikes in the northeastern city of Kharkiv impacted civilian infrastructure, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.
Marharyta Moldokova, 76, railed at Russian President Vladimir Putin after sheltering in her Kyiv home, where a window shattered.
“God, we can’t wait for someone to shoot him,” she said. “Everything is not enough for him. … What does he need?”
Developments:
∎ Ukraine’s new shipping corridor in the Black Sea can claim its first success as the Resilient Africa cargo ship, which left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk earlier in the week,…
