UKRAINE HIT BY RUSSIAN MISSILES DAY AFTER WEST’S OFFER OF TANKS

Russia launched a wave of missiles at Ukraine on Thursday, a day after Germany and the US pledged tanks to aid Kyiv’s fight against the invasion. Eleven people died and eleven others were injured after thirty buildings were struck across several regions, the state’s emergency service said. It added the worst damage to residential buildings was in the Kyiv region. Officials also reported strikes on two energy facilities in the Odesa region.

The barrage came as Russia said it perceived the new offer of military support, which followed a UK pledge to send Challenger 2 battle tanks, as direct Western involvement in the conflict. Valery Zaluzhny added that 47 of them were shot down, including 20 around Kyiv.

Earlier, Ukraine’s air force said it had downed a cluster of Iranian-made attack drones launched by Russian forces from the Sea of Azov in the south of the country. After Thursday’s strikes, emergency power cuts were enforced in Kyiv and several other regions to relieve pressure on the electricity grid, said DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power producer.