Russia hits Ukraine with missiles & drones, 17 dead

Russia carried out one of the largest attacks on Ukraine so far this year, killing at least 17 people and injuring dozens in an overnight onslaught of missiles and drones targeting Kyiv and other major cities.Ukraine’s air defence said Russia launched in excess of 40 ballistic and cruise missiles as well as more than 650 drones of various types, calling it one of the toughest attacks of the year to date. Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia were hit along with the capital.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters during a visit to the Netherlands on Thursday that 17 people had died in the attacks. Ukraine and the Netherlands are discussing anti-ballistic air defence systems, he said, without elaborating. Children were among those killed in the barrage, with mostly residential areas damaged, according to the State Emergency Service and local authorities. In Kyiv, police and medics who came to help the injured were also hurt in follow-up strikes, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said on Telegram. Russia regularly uses so-called doubletap strikes that seek to target rescue workers responding to initial attacks.This is a Bloomberg story