Russia on Friday launched its first widespread aerial assault in more than a month against Ukrainian civilian targets, killing at least 25 people, officials said — the deadliest such attack since January. At least 20 died at that one apartment block in Uman, its front face shorn off by the missile blast.
The attack marked a return to a pattern Russia adopted last year after its invasion failed to defeat Ukraine militarily, of launching large-scale barrages of missiles, rockets and drones at cities and towns far from the battlefields in the east and south.
It is a campaign intended partly to destroy civilian infrastructure, and also appears aimed at terrorizing and demoralizing the population, with lethal reminders that no corner of the country is beyond Russia’s reach.
On Friday, Russian bombers over the Caspian Sea fired 23 cruise missiles that struck after 4 a.m., and Ukrainian forces shot down 21 of them, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander of Ukrainian military forces, said in a statement.
