CNN
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Russia showered Kyiv, Lviv and different main cities throughout Ukraine with what officers mentioned was an unprecedented array of missiles on Thursday morning, stepping up its assault on all the nation as a sluggish floor struggle drags on within the east.

A complete of 81 missiles have been utilized in a “large assault” on Ukrainian infrastructure, together with six Kinzhal ballistic missiles which have the power to elude Kyiv’s air defenses, the Ukrainian army mentioned.

“The assault is de facto large-scale and for the primary time utilizing such several types of missiles. We see that this time as many as six Kinzhal have been used. That is an assault like I don’t keep in mind seeing earlier than,” Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Pressure Command of Ukraine, mentioned on Ukrainian tv Thursday.

“To date, now we have no capabilities to counter these weapons,” he added, referring to the Kinzhals, plus six X-22 air-launched cruise missiles that have been additionally launched by Russian forces.

“It’s been a troublesome night time,” President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned Thursday in a Fb message.

“The enemy fired 81 missiles in an try and intimidate Ukrainians once more, returning to their depressing ways. The occupiers can solely terrorize civilians. That’s all they will do. However it gained’t assist them. They gained’t keep away from duty for every part they’ve executed,” Zelensky mentioned.

He listed 10 areas throughout Ukraine the place aerial assaults passed off, together with Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, and mentioned the assaults hit “essential infrastructure and residential buildings.”

“Sadly, there are injured and useless. My condolences to the households,” he added.

Russia used the nuclear-capable Kinzhal missile, which it has described as a hypersonic weapon, on just a few events within the first weeks of its invasion final yr. However the highly effective weapon, which Ukraine doesn’t have the potential to shoot down, has not often been seen over the nation’s skies.

No less than 16 folks have been killed and greater than 20 injured through the in a single day assaults, in line with preliminary data from regional authorities.

In Kyiv, an air raid alert lasted for nearly 7 hours in a single day into Thursday and energy outages have been carried out as a preventative measure, regional authorities mentioned. Within the Zolochiv neighborhood close to Lviv, a fireplace broke out when the fragments of a Russian missile have been shot down, regional authorities mentioned.

The fireplace destroyed three residential buildings, and three vehicles. The rubble was being cleared and rescuers have been looking for further victims on Thursday morning. A number of infrastructure services and different buildings have been hit elsewhere in Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Protection mentioned Thursday the barrage of missile strikes it launched was retaliation for what the ministry referred to as “terrorist actions” organized by Kyiv in Russia’s Bryansk area final week.

“In response to the terrorist actions within the Bryansk area organized by the Kyiv regime on March 2 this yr, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered a large retaliation strike,” it mentioned in a press release. 

“Excessive-precision long-range air, sea and land-based weapons, together with the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, hit key components of Ukraine’s army infrastructure, military-industrial complicated enterprises, in addition to vitality services that serve them,” the ministry mentioned. 

Russian safety officers claimed a small Ukrainian armed group final week crossed the Russian border into the southern Bryansk area. Russia’s Federal Safety Service (FSB) mentioned the company was finishing up operations following “armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the state border.” Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a “terrorist assault.” An area official mentioned two civilians have been killed.

CNN can not independently confirm the Russian claims, and native media didn’t carry any photographs of the supposed incidents, any sort of confrontation or an alleged raid reported by Russian authorities.

Using such a large and unpredictable array of weaponry seemingly marks a shift within the Kremlin’s technique.

The Kinzhal, an air-launched variant of the Iskander short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) which has additionally, extra ceaselessly, been utilized in Ukraine, was unveiled by Putin in 2018 as a cornerstone of a modernized Russian arsenal.

Like just about all missiles it’s hypersonic, which implies they journey no less than 5 occasions the velocity of sound, however additionally it is notably troublesome to detect as a result of it may be launched from MiG-31 fighter jets, giving it an extended vary and the power to assault from a number of instructions.

“Russia seemingly developed the distinctive missile to extra simply goal essential European infrastructure … (its) velocity, together with the missile’s erratic flight trajectory and excessive maneuverability, may complicate interception,” in line with the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research (CSIS).

Russia’s use of the missile on Ukrainian targets final March was its first identified use in fight, in line with CSIS, and it was subsequently used once more in Could.

Eight Iranian-made Shahed drones have been additionally utilized in Thursday’s assaults, authorities mentioned. A senior US protection official mentioned Thursday that Ukraine is changing into a “battle lab” for testing Iranian weapons exterior of the Center East. The official spoke forward of US Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin’s go to to Israel the place Iranian-Russian army cooperation can be on the agenda.

“Everybody must be making ready for what the menace eventualities appear to be when Iran takes the ways, strategies and procedures it realized in Ukraine and begins to make use of these coercive ways right here,” the official mentioned in reference to the Center East.

The barrage got here as most focus in Ukraine was fastened to Bakhmut, the japanese metropolis that Russia’s floor forces have been assaulting for weeks and seem like on the cusp of capturing.

Ukraine’s troops have sustained a decided protection of the town at the same time as some army consultants advocate for a tactical withdrawal.

Zelensky mentioned in an interview with CNN on Tuesday that Kyiv’s ongoing resistance within the metropolis is “tactical,” warning that Russians may advance in direction of different key cities to the west in the event that they seize Bakhmut.

“We perceive that after Bakhmut they might go additional. They may go to Kramatorsk, they might go to Sloviansk, it might be open street for the Russians after Bakhmut to different cities in Ukraine, within the Donetsk course,” he advised CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an unique interview from Kyiv. “That’s why our guys are standing there.”