Russia fires second major air strike on Ukraine in 3 days
Early Monday morning, air raid sirens sounded in Ukrainian cities for the second time in three days, as Russia fired 18 more missiles at the country, wounding at least 34 people in Pavlohrad.
The attack follows the missile strike from Friday that killed at least 19 in the central city of Uman.
The Ukrainian military was able to combat 15 of the 18 missiles fired on Monday, including the ones that targeted the capital, reported The Associated Press.
What damage did the missiles cause?
The top official of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhii Lysak, said that the eastern city of Pavlohrad was hit the hardest, per AP.
A logistics hub of the country erupted in an explosion of heat and flames, which damaged 19 apartment complexes, 25 private houses, six schools and five shops, and injured 34 people, reported AP. Herman Haluschenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, said it will take several days to repair the damage done to the power network, leaving residents without power for a couple of days.
What will Ukraine do next?
Before the strikes, Ukraine had planned an offensive pushback to take place this spring against Russian forces, per The Wall Street Journal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told AP that in the counteroffensive, Ukraine would seek to reclaim the Crimean Peninsula.
The Journal said the arrival of Western weapons — like the American-made Patriot missiles and air defense system — has long been promised by Ukraine’s allies and recently delivered to the country, where military teams are training on the new systems to use in the counterattack.
Recently, Moscow has blamed Ukraine for several attacks made on the annexed peninsula, per the Journal.
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