Russia Resumes Strikes After Mass Bombardment of Ukraine

Monday’s missile-and-drone bombardment shattered the sense of relative normalcy that had returned to much of central and western Ukraine in recent months after Russian forces withdrew from areas around the capital, Kyiv, and shifted the focus of its firepower to eastern Ukraine.

Russian forces on Monday fired 84 missiles along with drones in a series of strikes that coincided with Ukraine’s morning rush hour, raising fears it could mark a new phase of the Kremlin’s assault centered on massive aerial bombing. The death toll from those attacks rose to 19, with 105 injured, Ukraine’s emergency services said Tuesday.

In Kyiv on Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s air defenses shot down two incoming missiles, the regional governor said.

Russia fired 12 missiles toward Ukraine’s southeast, hitting a car dealership and a school in the Zaporizhzhia region and killing at least one person, according to a social-media post from the area governor that included images of a burned-out building.

Along Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, air defenses shot down eight Iranian-made drones early on Tuesday, the country’s southern air command said. Explosions could be heard over the port city of Odessa in the predawn hours. Air defenses in western Ukraine shot down an Iranian-made drone sent by Russia, according to the region’s governor.

Ukrainian leaders have accused Russia of launching the attacks as a campaign of terror intended to wear down Ukraine’s civilian population after months in which Russian forces have lost ground to a lethal Ukrainian offensive. Kyiv’s forces have reclaimed a swath of territory previously occupied by Russia since its invasion in February.

“The occupiers already cannot oppose us on the battlefield, that is why they resort to this terror,” said President

Volodymyr Zelensky

in his nightly address to the nation on Monday evening, delivered from a blast site in central Kyiv.

“Well, we’ll make the battlefield even more excruciating for the enemy. And we will restore everything that was destroyed,” he said, referring to the damage from Monday’s strikes.

Russian President

Vladimir Putin

said Monday’s broad attack on Ukraine was in response to an attack on a strategic bridge connecting Russia to occupied Crimea, a part of Ukraine that Russia seized in 2014. Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for an explosion on the bridge on Saturday that crippled access to the Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine hasn’t claimed responsibility for the bridge explosion, but senior Ukrainian officials celebrated it on social media.

Ukraine’s emergency services warned people of a heightened risk of airstrikes in the coming days in a message sent to cellphones on Tuesday. “Stay in the shelters for your safety,” the message said.

Ukraine’s state electrical provider said it was working to restore power, which was at least partially disrupted in more than half of Ukraine’s regions on Monday due to the attacks. The power operator, Ukrenergo, thanked Ukrainians for reducing their electrical consumption and warned of outages in the coming days. “These are controlled restrictions that will last for several days,” the company said.

Mr. Zelensky was scheduled to speak on Tuesday to an emergency meeting of the Group of Seven leaders of the world’s largest economies, who are set to convene as a show of unity in support of Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials renewed calls for Western countries to supply Ukraine with additional air defenses in the aftermath of Monday’s attacks. “We are doing everything to get modern air-defense systems. And I am grateful to the partners who are already speeding up the delivery,” Mr. Zelensky said in his address on Monday night.

Write to Jared Malsin at [email protected]