Russia Launches Most Destructive Strike Of The Year Against Ukraine As War Reaches Grim Milestone

At least 18 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in Russia’s most destructive attack against Ukraine so far this year.

Overall, Moscow launched 74 missiles and almost 500 drones against the country, the Ukrainian air force said.

An air force spokesperson said the interception rate was low, with Reuters noting that several residential buildings were hit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cut short a visit to Ireland to return to the country. He said the main attack was directed at Kyiv and called for more air defense supplies, saying they are an “absolute and critical priority.”

Moscow, in turn, said the attack was retaliation for Ukrainian drone strikes in the country, which have increasingly targeted its energy infrastructure and are causing shortages in different regions.

In fact, President Putin admitted to the shortages as a result of Kyiv’s offensive.

Strikes have been increasingly effective, particularly in the occupied Crimea. Authorities there last week declared a state of emergency to deal with the situation.

Peninsula head Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram that the decision will allow authorities to make it easier to make decisions that stabilize the region. Authorities didn’t elaborate on what the measure will entail.

Crimea recently halted gas sales for civilians indefinitely, with Aksyonov saying they are needed to “ensure the functioning and security of the Republic of Crimea.”

The city of Sevastopol last Monday announced “enforced temporary measures” to address the situation, including the end of public transport after 10 p.m. and the closure of large shops and cafes two hours earlier. Street lights will also be turned off during parts of the day.

In another passage of the interview, Putin said Ukrainian attacks were seeking to “cause a split in Russian society and force Russia to halt, even if only briefly, the advance of our troops along the line of contact, and create conditions for launching a negotiation process on terms advantageous to our adversary.”

“Strikes on our infrastructure, wherever they are directed, have absolutely no effect on the situation at the front, on the line of contact,” he added.

Putin went on to say that Ukraine proposed to halt its strikes deep inside the country, claiming that Russia’s attacks are more powerful. Kyiv, he added, also offered to limit fighting to four regions captured but not annexed by Moscow: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. He said he rejected the proposal as it would allow Ukraine to relocate troops to those areas.

In this context, CNN noted that a new study shows that the amount of casualties sustained by Russia in the war has now surpassed 1.4 million, roughly 1% of the population. 450,000 people have died in the war.

“Russian fatalities in Ukraine are more than four times greater than all US fatalities in all wars combined since World War II, and more than nine times greater than all Soviet and Russian fatalities in all wars combined since World War II,” said Seth G. Jones and Riley McCabe, the authors of the study. Ukraine is estimated to have sustained more than half a million casualties.