Russia unleashes hypersonic missile strikes and cyber attack on Ukraine in revenge for assassination of top general
20 December 2024, 09:07
Russia has unleashed a massive hypersonic missile strike on Ukraine as Vladimir Putin takes revenge for the assassination of one of his top generals.
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The Kremlin targeted Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Friday morning, hitting multiple districts in the city.
Simultaneously, Putin launched an unprecedented cyber attack on the city, hitting official records and registers.
Six people are believed to be dead with a further 28 injured after Friday’s massive wave of strikes.
Russia utilised its deadly air-launched Kinzhal, or Dagger, hypersonic missiles as well as Iskander/KN-23 ballistic missiles in what has been seen as revenge for the killing of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces.
Russia targeted an astounding 630 residential buildings in the attack, leaving all of them without power.
Putin’s forces also took aim at 16 hospitals, 17 schools and 13 kindergartens, the city’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.
Emergency workers could be seen desperately searching for survivors in the rubble of an apartment block.
Elsewhere, ballistic missiles hit residential buildings in Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s birthplace Kryvyi Rih.
Two people were injured, including a 15-year-old girl, officials confirmed.
At 60,000 people were left without power following this morning’s strikes.
Igor Kirillov of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC) left his home on Tuesday when a hidden device exploded, killing him.
Ukraine quickly took responsibility for the killing, which came one day after Zelenskyy's government charged Kirillov with chemical weapon use.
According to state media, the bomb was hidden in a nearby e-scooter. His assistant was also killed.
The UK placed sanctions on Kirillov in October, accusing him of using chemical weapons in Ukraine and acting as a "significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation".
