NATO was forced to scramble fighter jets in Poland as Russia launched a wave of attacks involving Tu-95MS nuclear-capable bombers, more than 50 missiles, 700 drones and the hypersonic Oreshnik
Russia launched fresh attacks on Kyiv overnight following a period which has seen some of the most savage bombardments of the war.
The Kremlin also unleashed the medium-range hypersonic Oreshnik missile on Bila Tserkva, 56 miles south of the Ukrainian capital, according to reports.
“They launched a nuclear missile without a nuclear warhead to scare us and the world. Idiots,” said Serhiy Sternenko, adviser to the Kyiv Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, referring to the Oreshnik strike.
“This war must be ended — peace is needed, not missiles to satisfy the sick ambitions of one person,” he added.
NATO fighters were scrambled in Poland due to the punishing Russian strikes which also involved Tu-95MS nuclear-capable bombers, more than 50 missiles and 700 drones.
The onslaught, which left dead and wounded Ukrainians in its wake, was evidently a revenge strike which Putin had threatened for the deaths of at least 12 students, mainly female, in a Luhansk college dormitory according to Russian sources.
Ukraine said it had hit a military facility “whose personnel regularly carry out strikes against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.”
Western intelligence had issued warnings, echoed by Volodymyr Zelensky, that an Oreshnik strike was being prepared by Putin’s military. Meanwhile the overnight strikes saw every district of Kyiv hit in the attacks.
More than 40 locations were struck causing blazing buildings in the Russian onslaught which also involved Dagger, Iskander and Kh-101 missiles as well as drones.
At least ten apartment buildings were hit as well as a market at Kyiv’s Kvadrat shopping centre. Russian sources said that the Oreshnik system was deployed, making use of its fearsome separating warheads, although there was no initial independent confirmation.
The toll from the strike was put as at least four dead and 64 wounded, with three in a critical condition, in Kyiv and the surrounding region, and elsewhere. Children were among the injured.
Poland announced the scrambling of French air force planes in its airspace in a NATO response to the Putin onslaught.
“Due to the activity of long-range Russian aircraft carrying out air strikes on Ukrainian territory, military aircraft are operating in our airspace,” said a statement from Warsaw.
“The Command of the Operational Forces of the Armed Forces has activated the necessary forces and assets at its disposal. Ground-based air defence and radar detection systems have been placed on alert.”
Volodymyr Zelensky has warned in advance of the threat of an Oreshnik strike, and the US embassy in Kyiv alerted to a coming major Russian airstrike.
“There was a report from our intelligence,” he said. “We received information, including from American and European partners, about the Russians preparing a strike using the Oreshnik.”
For the third time, it apparently was deployed without warheads in an attempt to intimidate Ukrainians. One enraged Russian military channel – Thirteenth – lambasted Putin, asking: “What’s the point of firing a blank slug without a warhead and calling it Oreshnik? Did they kill anyone there? Zelensky, for example? No?
“It won’t bring back the lives of the dead children, it won’t end the war.”
The Russian strikes were seen as revenge for the alleged Ukrainian targeting of sleeping students last week in occupied Luhansk region. Occupation officials claimed 12 died including eight women – all aged 19 and above – after Russia earlier said the victims were “children” at Starobilsk pedagogical college.
Among the dead was Irina Zhivotikova, 19, a student beauty contestant who won the title Miss Audience Choice in the February pageant, said pro-Moscow sources. Other victims in the “student dormitory” were named as Darya Serdyuk, an orphan raised by her grandmother, along with Anna Pogribnichenko, and Alyona Martimyanova. All were 19.
Student Diana Shavkun, 19, survived the horror because bystanders came to her aid, she said. Ukraine insisted it had hit the Russian Rubikon military special unit in Starobilsk. Overnight, Ukraine again targeted Luhansk, this time hitting a major oil depot
