Russia slams key Ukrainian cities in one of deadliest offensives in months

By Kosta Gak, Helen Regan, Svitlana Vlasova, Victoria Butenko, CNN

Kyiv, Ukraine (CNN) — Moscow unleashed a lethal barrage on Ukraine early Tuesday, hitting the capital Kyiv and the central city of Dnipro in a broad-ranging offensive that inflicted one of the deadliest attack for months.

At least 18 people were killed in the overnight assault, including six people in Kyiv and 12 others, of which two were children, in Dnipro, according to Ukrainian officials. In total, more than 100 people were wounded.

In the capital alone, more than 41,000 residents sought refuge in underground stations, Kyiv Metro authorities said. It marked the highest number of people to have taken shelter in the metro during a night-time air raid alert in recent years, mirroring the scale of the bombing campaign.

More than 600 drones and dozens of missiles, such as advanced hypersonics, were fired on Ukraine, according to the military, hitting key civilian infrastructure. Within Kyiv, five medical facilities and several residential and commercial blocks were damaged or destroyed, sparking fires and burning cars, authorities reported.

Moscow launched the onslaught against threats of heightened aggression, citing a wave of Ukrainian near-daily attacks on Russian oil assets that have hit fuel assets and exacerbated economic woes. Last month the Kremlin warned of “consistent, systematic strikes” on “specific sites” in Ukraine – prompting Kyiv to push back against “Russian blackmail and threats.”

Between January and May, Ukrainian troops struck 15 Russian oil refineries, knocking out 40% of Russia’s main oil refining capacity, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday. CNN cannot independently verify the report.

The rise in aerial attacks by both sides comes amid a relative stalemate on the ground. After more than four years, Russia’s full-scale invasion has morphed into a grinding war of attrition where soldiers are being killed en masse, financial losses are piling up and Kyiv has started to liberate more land than Moscow has seized. Last month, Ukrainian troops largely stalled a renewed Russian offensive, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based conflict monitor.

Putin ‘trying to erase Ukraine into a graveyard’

Charred cars were buried under rubble and people trudged through a debris-laden landscape in Kyiv on Tuesday. In one video clip, an elderly couple could be seen forking out the remnants of their flat, where the window facade was completely shattered.

Several Ukrainians described reams of dark smoke curling through the neighborhood early Tuesday, as they tried to recover their belongings while thunderous bombardment hammered overhead.

One man was fumbling in the dark, after he awoke to heavy explosions that blew open the entrance of his house. “It was so powerful that everything came flying at us,” Mykhailo Sartynski told CNN. “I was terrified for my wife… Everything was on fire.”

Another resident, Karina Kasamara, recalled an initial blast “shattering the windows, balconies, and everything.” “The dog ran out into the hallway and then all hell broke loose,” she said “(Russian President Vladimir Putin) is trying to erase Ukraine into a graveyard. It seems to me that’s where it’s all heading.”

Kyiv’s air defenses appeared to be less active during a ballistic missile strike around 7 a.m. local time, with CNN producers in the city center hearing ongoing explosions, but not the firing of counter-air systems.

The mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, described the overnight assault as a “massive enemy attack.” Emergency crews fear people are trapped under the rubble of a multi-story apartment block in Podilsky district, following a “double tap” Russian strike, according to Klitschko.

At least 64 people were wounded across the city, Ukrainian officials said, in strikes that caused power outages and sent residents scrambling to shelters as air raid sirens sounded.

A suspected missile strike hit a 24-story residential building in Shevchenkivskyi district, sparking a fire, and a blaze broke out in a nine-story building in Podil after debris struck the roof, the mayor said. Russian strikes damaged a clinic and debris fell on the grounds of a kindergarten, Klitschko added. In Bucha, three homes, warehouse facilities and non-residential buildings were damaged, Kalashnyk said.

Further east, Russian attacks were reported in Kharkiv, where 14 people were wounded, including a child, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

Among those killed in Dnipro was Maj. Anton Yarmolenko, deputy chief of the Fire and Rescue Unit, who was responding to a rescue call at the time, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs Ihor Klymenko said.

Altogether, Russia fired 656 drones and 73 missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to Ukrainian Air Force figures, which said the vast bulk of the drones and just over half of the missiles were shot down.

Russia fired eight of its advanced hypersonic Zircon missiles toward Ukraine, the air force said, but none were intercepted. Experts have previously told CNN the Zircon missiles are near impossible to shoot down.

The main targets of the strike were Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Poltava, according to the air force statement.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its “massive strike” targeted Ukrainian defense, military, fuel and transport facilities in several key regions, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday.

The assault involved “high-precision long-range weapons,” including drones and “hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” launched from the air and sea, according to TASS.

Last month, Moscow levelled blame on Kyiv for an attack on a college dormitory in Starobilsk, a Russian-occupied town in eastern Luhansk. At the time, Ukraine insisted its forces solely target “military infrastructure.” But late Monday, Putin warned the Starobilsk strike had added “a new dimension to the conflict.” The Kremlin echoed that sentiment on Tuesday.

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CNN’s Anna Chernova contributed reporting.