KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched a large aerial assault in and around Ukraine’s capital overnight into Tuesday morning, killing at least 12 people and wounding more than a dozen others, including three children, local authorities said. The strikes marked the sixth straight day of heavy Russian attacks on Kyiv that began last week and are an unprecedented stretch of consecutive aerial assaults since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour more than 4.5 years ago. Moscow’s aim is to grind down civilians by disrupting their daily life, Ukrainian officials say. Several million Ukrainian schoolchildren returned to classes Tuesday for the new school year, just as Russia unleashed its onslaught of cruise and ballistic missiles, jet-powered drones, glide bombs and artillery salvos at Kyiv as well as eight other regions of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 12 people were killed, including an Indian citizen. The attack struck civilian infrastructure and residential buildings in several districts of Kyiv, authorities said, with eight people killed in the city itself and three others in the surrounding region. Six employees of state-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia were among those killed in Kyiv when a ballistic missile hit a depot and other premises, company chairman Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said in a social media post. Nearly 350 emergency workers were deployed in Kyiv and the surrounding region, Zelenskyy said. The Russian Defence Ministry said that its forces carried out a “massive strike” on Ukraine overnight with “precision-guided weapons” and long-range drones. The assault targeted facilities manufacturing and storing weapons as well as military-related infrastructure, it said. Ukraine’s air force said that Russia began the attack at 6 p.m. Monday, using ballistic, cruise and anti-radar missiles, as well as 218 drones and decoys. About a third of the drones were jet-powered, which are much harder to intercept than the propeller-driven version. The main Russian targets were in the Kyiv and southern Odesa regions, the air force said in a statement. The attack on the Odesa region, located on the Black Sea, damaged civilian infrastructure and wounded one person, regional head Oleh Kiper said. Two residential buildings were damaged, while a fire broke out at a textile factory. Russian forces also struck the Orlivka international ferry crossing on the border with Romania, he said. Russia also shelled the northern Zhytomyr region, starting fires at an industrial facility and a warehouse, Ukraine’s Emergency Service said. In the capital, first responders worked to clear rubble from damaged apartment buildings and free trapped residents. Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry said Tuesday that its air defences overnight intercepted 516 Ukrainian drones over 18 Russian regions, as well as the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea. In the Leningrad region, the drone attack sparked a fire in the port of Ust-Luga, Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said, as Ukraine extended its campaign to hurt Russia’s oil sector, which is a mainstay of the economy. Ust-Luga is one of Russia’s largest oil and gas export terminals more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) away from Ukraine. It has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone attacks this year. ___ Samya Kullab, The Associated Press
