Russia launches document aerial assault on Ukraine

KYIV — Russia launched the biggest aerial assault on Ukraine in a single day because the starting of the full-scale invasion, in accordance with the Ukrainian Air Power, which added that one in all its F-16 fighter jet pilots was killed within the assault.

Air drive spokesman Yurii Ihnat advised NPR on Sunday it was the biggest air assault when it comes to the variety of weapons used.

In a press release on social media, the air drive stated Russia used 537 drones and missiles within the assault; 249 had been shot down and the remaining disappeared from the radar, the air drive stated.

The strikes focused cities all through Ukraine, together with Mykolaiv within the south, Zaporizhzhia within the southeast, Kremenchuk within the central a part of the nation, and Lviv within the west. Companies and civilian infrastructure had been hit, and several other individuals had been injured, native authorities stated.

Writing on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy famous a toddler was damage in an assault on Smila, a city in central Ukraine.

“This week alone, there have been over 114 missiles, greater than 1,270 drones and virtually 1,110 guided air bombs,” he wrote. Russian President Vladimir Putin “determined way back that he would proceed to struggle regardless of the world’s requires peace.”

Within the newest assaults, Lieutenant Colonel Maksym Ustymenko, a 32-year-old Ukrainian F-16 pilot, was killed after taking pictures down seven Russian aerial targets.

“Whereas partaking the ultimate goal, his plane was broken and started to lose altitude,” the air drive stated in a press release. “Maksym Ustymenko did all the pieces he might to steer the plane away from a populated space however didn’t handle to eject in time.”

Ukraine lobbied the Biden administration laborious for the F-16 fighter jets, which assist defend Ukraine’s skies.

Russia has stepped up assaults on Ukraine regardless of talks between the 2 international locations in Istanbul, which had been imagined to result in a ceasefire. Nevertheless, the one final result has been a sequence of prisoner exchanges. Within the final couple of weeks, Russian drones and ballistic missiles have killed dozens of Ukrainians and injured a whole lot extra.

Talking on the St. Petersburg Worldwide Financial Discussion board on June 20, Putin stated “all of Ukraine is ours” in concept and that “wherever the foot of a Russian soldier steps is Russian land.”

Russian forces proceed to slowly advance in Ukraine, regardless of Ukrainian assaults on Russia’s conflict machine, together with its bomber fleet.

NPR producer Polina Lytvynova contributed reporting from Kyiv.