The Kremlin launched a new wave of missile and air strikes on the night of Thursday to Friday, April 1-2, hitting civilian homes and military targets across the country.
Ukrainian social and conventional media reported widely on Thursday evening of RF missile launches from the RF-occupied Crimea territory, followed by weapon strikes and shoot-downs in the southern Odesa region.
Serhiy Bratchuk, head of the Odesa region defense command, said at least two missiles hit ground targets, causing casualties. He did not give details.
A 06:00 statement from Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) said Odesa air defense units shot down one RF cruise missile.
At least four RF missiles struck “infrastructure targets” in Ukraine’s northern Poltava region overnight, along with three RF air force air strikes hitting “industrial facilities” in the Poltava region city Kremenchug, said Dmitro Lunin, head of the Poltava defense command, in a statement.
A separate RF rocket artillery strike hit a bedroom community in Kremenchug’s outskirts. Authorities were still working to determine casualty counts and extent of damage, Lunin said.
In the city Dnipro, two RF missiles hit a factory, according to news reports.
In the Donbas city Lysychansk, RF forces used artillery rockets to bombard a residential district; and in the neighboring village of Toshkovka, RF forces used tube artillery to set houses afire, a statement from the Luhansk defense command said.
The independent Belarusian news platform Belaruskiy Raion reported the launch of a total of sixteen or more RF long-range missiles from the Baranovichi and Mozyrsky regions from 22:00 to midnight on Thursday. It was not clear where these weapons struck.
The Kremlin since the second week of the war has increasingly turned its long-range missiles, artillery and bombers on Ukrainian infrastructure, with apparently little regard to to civilian safety, or damage to civilian property.
Ukrainian officials have alleged the RF’s leadership is targeting civilian homes and businesses in an attempt to browbeat the Ukrainian population into submission, and also, because of the heavy casualties they are likely to incur, if RF forces attack Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF) combat units.
