Roving Periscope: Now, Russia pounds “almost all of Ukraine” with missiles
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Five days after Ukraine stunned Russia, and the world, with a low-cost destruction of a third of Russian Air Force assets merely by using drones from 4,500 km, Moscow’s missile attack on Friday left Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy admitting that “almost all of Ukraine” came under fireballs.
Europe’s deadliest war since the Second World War ended in 1945 started with the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Russia claimed its “special military operation” will close in 48 hours but the conflict, which has claimed a million lives and displaced millions more continues.
Footage from the Russia strikes showed missiles screeching overhead moments before erupting into fireball explosions.
According to the media reports, “almost all of Ukraine” came under a massive aerial assault in a coordinated missile and drone attack that killed at least three people and injured dozens more.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Zelenskyy wrote, “Russia doesn’t change its stripes – another massive strike on cities and ordinary life.” More than 400 drones and over 40 missiles, including ballistic missiles, were launched by Russian forces in what he described as one of the largest-scale attacks in recent months.
“Three people — all rescue workers — have been killed and 49 wounded,” he said.
Air raid sirens rang out through the night across the country. While alerts in Kyiv have since been lifted, they remain in place in several other regions. In the northwestern city of Lutsk. Officials said 15 drones and six missiles were used in an attack that injured at least five.
Russia’s defense ministry claimed it had intercepted 174 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Zelenskyy urged stronger international action, saying, “Russia must be held accountable for this. We’ve done a lot together with the world to enable Ukraine to defend itself. But now is exactly the moment when America, Europe, and everyone around the world can stop this war together by pressuring Russia.”
“If someone is not applying pressure and is giving the war more time to take lives — that is complicity and accountability. We must act decisively.”
The overnight bombardment follows recent comments by US President Donald Trump, who claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin had “very strongly” vowed to retaliate after Ukrainian drone strikes targeted Russian airbases.
Last week, Ukraine launched a major drone offensive dubbed “Operation Spider Web,” targeting five airbases across Russia. Deploying 117 drones, Ukrainian forces claimed to have destroyed nearly a third of Russia’s fleet of long-range, nuclear-capable bombers and surveillance aircraft.
More than 39 months into war, Russia now controls—almost—a third of Ukraine’s eastern provinces where Russian-speaking people live. The US-led West has armed to the teeth and pumped in billions of dollars to keep Ukraine standing, and clamped sanctions against Moscow, but the war is unlikely to end soon, despite peace efforts.
This week, US President Donald Trump again spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and ended up saying that let the two warring countries fight on like children some more time…
