(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The Russian military hammered several Ukrainian cities with a large-scale missile and drone attack on Friday, claiming to have targeted the country’s arms industry. The move comes just days after Kiev’s forces carried out a major operation which crippled dozens of Russian warplanes.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced the overnight strikes in a statement on Friday afternoon, saying they were “retaliation to the Kiev regime’s terrorist attacks.”
“The Russian Armed Forces delivered a massive strike by air-launched, seaborne and ground-based long-range precision weapons,” the ministry said, adding that the targets included “enterprises producing and repairing Ukraine’s armament and military hardware.”
Writing on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack left at least four people dead and some 80 injured, condemning the operation as a “cynical Russian strike on ordinary cities.” He added that Kiev, Ternopil, Lutsk and several other regions were targeted with “more than 400 drones” and at least 40 missiles, but claimed Ukrainian forces had shot down “a significant part” of them.
Friday’s strikes came on the heels of other major escalations in recent days. In addition to Ukraine’s ambitious drone attack on Russian airfields last Sunday – which reportedly destroyed up to 41 aircraft, including strategic bombers – Kiev’s intelligence service said it had targeted Russia’s Kerch Bridge earlier this week. The span links Crimea to the Russian mainland.
In the last week, Moscow has also accused Kiev of “terrorist” sabotage against railroad overpasses in the Russian regions of Bryansk and Kursk, which left seven people dead, while Ukraine’s military has reported multiple missile strikes on training sites for its troops.
Despite the surge in violence, the two warring states are continuing to meet in Turkey for direct peace talks, sitting down on Monday for their second round of negotiations since May 16. So far, the dialogue has made little progress toward ending the conflict, though both meetings resulted in prisoner swap deals that have freed thousands of wounded POWs.
Will Porter is assistant news editor and book editor at the Libertarian Institute, and a regular contributor at Antiwar.com. Find more of his work at Consortium News and ZeroHedge.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
