KYIV, June 2: Russia fired more than 600 drones and dozens of missiles -- including hard-to-down ballistic missiles -- at Ukraine, Kyiv's air force said Tuesday, in an overnight barrage that killed at least nine people.
Ukraine's air force said it detected 73 missiles and 656 drones launched by Russia's army overnight, saying it downed 602 of the drones and 40 of the missiles.
Reuters adds, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that its massive overnight strike on Ukraine was a response to what it called "terrorist acts" against targets inside Russia and said it had struck a range of Ukrainian military targets.
Ukrainian authorities said that Russian drones and missiles had pounded the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities early on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than 100 following days of warnings about Moscow's plans for a major assault.
"Overnight, in response to terrorist acts of the Kyiv regime, the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out a massive strike using high-precision long-range air-, land-, and sea-based weapons," the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.
It said Russia had used hypersonic missiles and drones to attack seven Ukrainian regions including Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv, successfully targeting sites useful to the Ukrainian armed forces such as fuel and transport facilities and military airfields.
The Kremlin warned last week that Russia would start to carry out "systematic strikes" on targets in Kyiv in retaliation for what it said was a devastating Ukrainian drone attack on a student dormitory in Russian-held Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, which killed 21 people.
Ukraine said it had targeted a drone command centre in the area not students. Putin said on Monday evening that Kyiv had "opened a new page in a series of crimes" with the dormitory strike and with a later strike on an apartment building in a Russian-held part of Ukraine's Kherson region. Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike killed one person in Russia's Kursk region, near the Ukrainian border, regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said.
Another drone sparked a fire at an oil refinery in the southwestern city of Krasnodar, its operational headquarters said on Telegram.
The strikes on Ukraine came after Zelensky said on Friday "we have intelligence information about Russia preparing a new massive strike" and called for people to "protect your lives".
"Please pay attention to air alerts, protect your lives. Our services are working efficiently and are prepared; the Air Force and other defenders of our skies will be on duty 24/7, as always."
The Ukrainian president has reiterated his call to allies to allow and finance the supply of Patriot missiles, which can intercept Russian ballistic missiles. �"AGENCIES
