Russia’s ‘brutal pattern’ denounced as more deadly missile strikes hit Ukraine

At least four people were killed and more than 20 injured in another wave of Russian missile strikes on cities across Ukraine, prompting a senior United Nations official in the country to demand that Moscow end its “brutal pattern” of attacks on civilian targets.

Ukrainian air defences shot down 16 of 28 cruise missiles launched by Russia in the early hours of Tuesday but eight regions of the country were hit, including the western Lviv and Volyn provinces that border EU and Nato states. Several large S-300 and S-400 rockets were also fired at the eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

The Lviv region, which borders Poland, was hit by six missiles in one of the heaviest barrages to strike the area during Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, which began nearly 18 months ago. Nineteen people were injured and 40 buildings damaged in the attack.

Three people were killed and three wounded when a missile hit a factory run by a Swedish industrial bearings maker in the neighbouring province of Volyn, while 1,000km to the east in Donetsk region, one person was killed and one hurt when a missile struck a warehouse in the city of Kramatorsk.

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Officials said apartment blocks, schools and a sport complex were among the buildings damaged in the attacks, as well as industrial sites and power and water facilities.

“The daily terror from the Russians has a single goal – to break us and our will to fight… This will not happen. We are all at war and we can win together. Every such strike means that more must be done. Hit the enemy harder, create more technology to stay ahead, help more. The enemy will not manage to defeat our people,” said Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“If Ukrainians die, then Russia should be isolated. And it is also essential to deprive the enemy of the chance to fire these missiles, it must be demilitarised. Because this is the security not only of Ukraine, but also of the world,” he added, noting that western-made components were still being found in Russian missiles.

Denise Brown, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator for Ukraine, said the missile strikes damaged “homes, a kindergarten and other civilian infrastructure that are hundreds of kilometres away from the front line”.

“These are the parts of the country where millions of people are seeking safety and refuge after fleeing the horrors of Russia’s invasion. Russia’s persistent attacks hitting essential infrastructure in populated areas cause immense human suffering. This brutal pattern of civilian harm must stop,” she added.

The Kremlin insists its armed forces are aiming only at military targets in Ukraine, and claim that large civilian buildings that it strikes are being used by Ukrainian soldiers and that the country’s power stations are a legitimate target because they serve its war effort.

The Russian defence ministry said Tuesday’s attack was “a concentrated strike with long-range air- and sea-based high-precision weapons on key enterprises of the Kyiv regime’s military industry”.

At a security conference in Moscow attended by China’s defence minister Li Shangfu, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said Ukraine’s military resources were “almost exhausted” and that the war had exposed the weakness of western arms supplied to Kyiv.

“We are ready to share our assessments of the weak points of western equipment with our partners,” he added.