Ukraine War: Eighteen Dead As Russian Missiles Hit Cities

[BBC] A wave of Russian air strikes on cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, has left at least 18 people dead.

Sixteen people including a child were killed in an attack that hit a block of flats in the central city of Uman, officials said.

And a woman and her three-year-old daughter were killed in the city of Dnipro, according to the local mayor.

The Russian defence ministry said its military had targeted Ukrainian army reserve units with the strikes.

State-owned RIA news agency said Russia was aiming for the reserve units and used high-precision weapons on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the apartment block was among 10 residential buildings that were damaged in Uman.

The state rescue service said the child killed in the city was born in 2013 and another 11 people needed hospital treatment.

Mr Zelensky said the attacks showed further international action needed to be taken against Russia.

“Evil can be stopped by weapons – our defenders are doing it. And it can be stopped by sanctions – global sanctions must be enhanced,” he said in a tweet.

The head of the Kyiv city military administration said it was the first Russian missile attack on the capital in 51 days.

There are no immediate reports of civilian casualties in the capital.

Twenty-one out of 23 missiles and two attack drones were shot down by Ukraine’s air defence system, officials said in a post on the messaging service Telegram.

The Russian-installed mayor of Donetsk said seven people were killed in the separatist-run city when Ukrainian artillery shells hit a minibus. BBC News has been unable to immediately verify the claim.

A video posted on Telegram by Ukraine’s State Border Service showed a badly damaged apartment building in Uman after the strikes.

A resident of one damaged block of flats, Olga, told the Reuters news agency that windows were blown out of her apartment “then came the explosion”.

One man cried as he watched the emergency services carry a body away on a stretcher.

Another local resident said he heard an explosion at 04:30 local time (02:30 GMT), and “there were two very strong explosions, everything started to burn, cars started to burn.”

The attacks come as Ukrainian forces say they are ready to launch a military offensive with new equipment, including tanks, supplied by Western allies.

“As soon as there is God’s will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told an online news briefing on Friday.

Russia has struggled to make headway in a winter offensive including a 10-month battle for control of the strategically important city of Bakhmut.

The Russian defence ministry said on Friday its military had targeted Ukrainian army reserve units with long-range strikes using high-precision weapons, according to a report by the state-owned RIA news agency.

Moscow has previously said it does not deliberately target civilians, but thousands have been injured and killed across Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.