Russia hurled missiles at cities across Ukraine as people slept

Russia hurled missiles at cities across Ukraine as people slept early on Friday, killing at least 12 people in the first large-scale air strikes in nearly two months.

The early-morning attacks were carried out as Kyiv prepares to launch a counteroffensive to try to retake Russian-occupied territory.

In the central city of Uman, firefighters battled a raging blaze at a residential apartment building that had been struck on an upper floor.

At least 10 people were killed, including two children, and nine were taken to hospital, regional governor Ihor Taburets said.

Rescue workers clambered through a huge pile of the smoldering rubble, carrying out a body bag away on a stretcher. A grown man wearing a face mask sobbed as he watched, and a woman came to comfort him.

“At first the windows were blown out, then came the explosion,” a resident of the apartment building who gave her name only as Olga said as rescue workers dug through the debris. “Everything flew out.”

In the southeastern city of Dnipro, a missile struck a house, killing a two-year-old child and a 31-year-old woman, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said. Three people were also wounded in the attack.

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 21 out of 23 cruise missiles fired by Russia.

“This Russian terror must face a fair response from Ukraine and the world,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote in a Telegram post alongside images of the wreckage. “And it will.”

It was not clear what Russia was targeting in Friday’s attacks though it has regularly struck civilian infrastructure, particularly energy facilities throughout the winter.