Ukraine war: Wave of Russian air strikes reported across the country | BBC News

Ukraine war: Wave of Russian air strikes reported across the country | BBC News

Hello I’m Sarah Campbell thank you for joining us on BBC News Russia has launched one of its biggest aerial attacks on Ukraine since the War Began killing at least 18 people in a wave of deadly explosions across the country President Vladimir zalinski says4 of 158 missiles and drones fired

Were shot down by Ukrainian defenses Ukraine’s Air Force says it has never seen so many locations targeted simultaneously cities hit in include keev Lviv in the West adessa in the South and dipro haiv and zapara in the eastern Ukraine a maternity hospital and shopping mall were among buildings

Damaged and destroyed and Poland says a search is underway after an unidentified aerial object entered the NATO country’s airspace from the direction of Ukraine at Hof Poland’s president has called an emergency meeting of security Chiefs from Kei our Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse reports it is and always has been the

Whole of Ukraine which is under attack Kiev is still moscow’s biggest prize air defenses have improved here but this attack proved too much I was woken up at halfast 7 by a horrible sound it was so frightening the missile was flying and everything was buzzing so noisy you are left in no

Doubt that this was a direct missile strike the scale of the damage the size of the blast zone the heat caus you’re more used to seeing damage caused from falling debris when a missile is intercepted but this reflects the scale of this Russian attack and scenes like this are being replicated right across

Ukraine a lucky Escape in harv in the Northeast this city is familiar with missile strikes but not 20 in a single morning a shopping center in Neo in the east as well as a maternity hospital were hit it didn’t stop there this is the port city of adessa in the South

Where a residential block was struck even in Lviv in the west which has usually spared the worst of this Invasion wasn’t immune this time Ukraine’s Air Force says it has never seen so many missiles in a war where Moscow routinely strikes cities it can’t occupy that is saying

Something well joining me now is Olga IFA from the BBC’s Russian service hello to you Olga I mean we saw there from James’s report the intensity the scale of these attacks hasn’t been seen for many many months death and injury toll has been rising throughout the past few

Hours what’s the latest that you can tell us uh yes the death toll is is rising almost every hour unfortunately and I think it’s a very sad and very somber reminder of ambitions of Mr Putin and of the fact that this war is far from being

Over and far from being quiet uh despite the uh the stand still so so to say on the front line we we haven’t seen any sufficient breakthroughs in the past few months but uh this strike shows that Putin Putin’s Ambitions are still there and also this shows um the thought which

Some experts have been voicing for a while that Russia may be preparing for more strikes in Winter because these winter strikes they uh they put more pressure on Ukrainian infrastructure on the Ukrainian economy also on the psychology of ordinary ukrainians they make uh day-to-day life way hard

Especially bearing in mind that it’s um you know very cold currently in KF it’s minus temperatures and also for Putin’s uh audience so to say in Russia it also sent a message that he is still in the game he still has those Ambitions and maybe uh he tries to project an image

That he is still in control especially for the audience within the country because if you ask a Russians there is not not that much for them to remember uh in during this 2023 year and these strikes may just he hopes May project an image that he’s still strong because

Next year he has a presidential elections come okay Olga IFA from the BBC’s Russian service thank you uh joining me now is Dr precious chat dudy senior lecturer in politics and international studies at the open University um hello to you thank you uh for your time what do you make of the

Timing of this well the timing’s very interesting because the sort of immediate timing is directly after a pretty dramatic Ukrainian hit on a Russian warship in Crimea which unusually um the Russian leadership did acknowledge had happened but of course the sheer scale and coordinated nature of these missile

Attacks makes it makes it clear that it’s been uh in the offing for quite some time so I think it’s part of a broader Trend with the Russian leadership to attempt to attack um infrastructural targets right at the the the worst point of winter um both to make sure that they

Have the the greatest impact um in a practical sense but also to create a sort of psychological resonance because people will be struggling with the aftermath of this attack of course and also coming a day after uh the US Congress signed off what at the moment might be the last uh significant Aid

Package and it’s interesting isn’t it that the US ambassador in Ukraine has has basically pointed to this and said this is why more funding is needed yeah precisely now obviously uh the Russian leadership has been very closely watching the internal debates in the US and um funding issues are very

Much closely tied to us domestic politics but it’s very clear that if um further support is not forthcoming then Ukraine is going to absolutely struggle and it’s success in the war is very much contingent on that support um so it’s it’s clear that Russia’s watching that very very

Closely as we go into 2024 um how would you assess the situation here we’re approaching the what second anniversary of the be beginning of hostilities um it’s it’s difficult to um I guess give a prognosis about how this is likely to pan out because there are so many variables at risk now obviously

Ukraine has put up a far greater um resistance to the Russian aggression than would have been imagined beforehand I think um that’s partly because of the you know the absolute Resolute nature of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian leadership and their ability to um generate significant social support but

Also uh it’s down to massive international support and it is contingent on that now we’ve heard recent um comments uh from the Russian side about their ongoing commitment to the war they’re making a a really big attempt to try and portray the continuation of the war as basically a

Continual trajectory that they set out with aims of the so-called deification of Ukraine essentially they want to change Ukraine’s leadership to a friendlier one um and they’re basically playing um the line over and over that this will not change that the war will not end until they’ve achieved those

Objectives um but they that they are making um significant inroads now and that’s the main line that we’re seeing on Russian State TV so it’s clear that they’re in it for the long haul that they want to keep sight of those initial objectives for Ukraine of course the the

Key objective is is keeping its own sovereignty and its own independence and that really is a fight for survival so you know in in that way things haven’t changed despite the fact that we’re now running into the second year anniversary of the war and in terms of the psychological impact on the Ukrainian

People um such a WID spread attack um as this today people presumably uh worried that that um the feeling that that that nowhere effectively is out of range yeah I think that’s absolutely right now we know that um the Russian leadership very often does calibrate its

T its attacks for what I would call a kind of maximal like cinematic effect almost so we’ve seen this wide range of attacks that makes it clear that nowhere in the country is safe um and we also you know the timing apart from being important in terms of strategic Aimes it

Comes as Ukraine celebrating Christmas according to a western calendar rather than uh the Orthodox calendar that’s significant too in a symbolic sense because that kind of hints at this rupture between Ukraine and Russia and Ukraine’s um Westward facing orientation now so all of this is really important I

Think for it’s essentially creating that um clear line that you know this is a it’s about keeping Ukraine within Russia’s orbit um and for ukrainians it’s absolutely about exer that Independence but no they’re not going to be feeling at all secure now I think it’s really made quite a significant

Impact psychologically okay dror precious chass dudy thank you so much for your time

At least 18 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military says Russia launched a “massive” attack with 158 drones and missiles.

The air force says it has “never seen so many locations targeted simultaneously”.

Earlier this week, Ukraine struck a Russian warship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia.

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