Russia Launches Massive Ukraine Strike 08/27 06:23

   

   KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Russia bombarded cities across Ukraine with missiles 
and drones in an onslaught that began after nightfall Wednesday and continued 
into daylight hours Thursday, when explosions echoed around the capital Kyiv 
through the morning.

   Ukraine is desperately short of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles that 
can counter Russia's ballistic missiles, and Moscow's fast-flying jet-powered 
drones have brought another challenge in the fifth year since the Russian 
army's invasion.

   Ukrainian officials say Russia builds up missile stocks and launches major 
attacks every few days, hoping to exhaust Ukrainian defenses through the sheer 
weight of numbers. In response, Ukraine has hit high-profile targets on Russian 
soil as the countries inflict mutual destruction.

   Russia says attack targeted war-related facilities

   The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces carried out a "massive" 
overnight strike on targets in nine Ukrainian cities. It described the targets 
as military-related, including industrial facilities, oil refineries, logistics 
hubs and port infrastructure.

   Civilian areas including apartment blocks suffered damage. The barrage 
killed a 78-year-old woman in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, with at least 
nine people reported wounded elsewhere, Ukrainian officials said.

   "Russia continues to invest in missiles and in expanding its war, and that 
means more countermeasures are needed," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 
said on social media, noting promises earlier this week by European countries 
to provide more air defense help.

   "It is important that these (measures) are also supplemented by additional 
ballistic missile defense packages" through European purchases of weapons from 
the United States, he said.

   Zelenskyy make official visit to neighbor Moldova

   Zelenskyy was due to visit neighboring Moldova on Thursday to mark its 
national day commemorating its 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet 
Union. Ukraine announced its independence the same year.

   Russia's neighbors in Eastern Europe are concerned its invasion of Ukraine 
could trigger a wider conflict, and drones flying into its airspace have fueled 
jitters.

   Moldova's Ministry of Defense said Thursday that five drones breached its 
airspace overnight, but it didn't specify who fired them.

   Ukraine's air force said defenses shot down or suppressed seven Russian 
ballistic missiles, though it didn't say how they achieved that.

   Four districts of Kyiv were hit during the night, damaging residential 
blocks, a school building and a medical facility, though no casualties were 
reported, city police said.

   Russian forces struck industrial facilities as well as energy infrastructure 
in Ukraine's central Poltava region, said Vitalii Diakivnych, head of the 
Poltava regional military administration.

   The southern Odesa region also came under a massive Russian attack lasting 
more than seven hours, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa regional 
military administration.

   The barrage damaged a 16-story residential building and two educational 
facilities as well as a grain elevator, he said. Odesa is a key port for 
Ukraine's vital exports of grain and other agricultural products.

   Ukraine takes aim at another Russian online retailer

   Ukraine has also fired hundreds of long-range drones almost nightly at 
targets in Russia.

   The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that its air defenses shot down 
267 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions, illegally annexed Crimea, the Sea 
of Azov and the Black Sea.

   After razing huge warehouses in recent months belonging to Wildberries, 
Russia's biggest online retailer, Ukrainian drones are now taking aim at Ozon, 
the country's second-largest e-commerce company.

   Ozon said its logistics facilities in the cities of Orenburg and Ufa were 
attacked but neither of the premises caught fire.