Russia continues bombardment of Ukrainian cities in renewed air strikes

Russian forces have bombarded Ukrainian cities with missiles, killing at least twelve people in all in their first significant airstrikes in in two months.

This is the latest in a slew of Russian missile and drone strikes.

The early morning assaults came as Kyiv was preparing to launch a counteroffensive in an effort to reclaim Russian-occupied territory.

In the central city of Uman, at least seven people were killed and 17 wounded when a missile hit an apartment building, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

In the southeastern city of Dnipro, a missile struck a house, killing a two-year-old child and a 31-year-old woman, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said. Three people were also wounded in the attack.

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 21 out of 23 cruise missiles fired by Russia.

Although Moscow claims that it does not intentionally target civilians, its air attacks and shelling have killed tens of thousands of people and wrecked cities and towns across Ukraine.

Explosions also rocked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, with officials saying that air defense troops destroyed 11 missiles and two drones.

Two people were wounded in the town of Ukrayinka just south of Kyiv, officials said.

Explosions were also reported after midnight in the central cities of Kremenchuk and Poltava, and in Mykolaiv in the south, according to the Interfax Ukraine news agency.

Friday’s attacks were the first coordinated missile strikes on such a large-scale since an apparent easing off of a Russian campaign of air strikes on civilian infrastructure.

For months, the eastern city of Bakhmut has been the focal point of combat as Russia attempts to retake the remaining sections of the industrial Donbas that it does not yet control.

Russia also controls a large portion of southern and southeastern Ukraine, and it captured and annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.