Russian strikes kill 11 after US and Germany promise tanks

Ukrainian officials said at least 11 people were killed and 11 injured in Russian missile and drone strikes, hours after the US and Germany announced plans to deliver modern western-made heavy battle tanks to Kyiv’s military.

Oleksandr Khorunzhiy, a spokesman for Ukraine’s state emergency service, said the air attack early on Thursday hit 11 regions around the country and damaged 35 buildings. Other officials said critical infrastructure sites had been hit, continuing a months-long campaign by Russian forces to cripple Ukraine’s energy system.

Mr Khorunzhiy did not say where the deadly strikes had taken place, but local officials said separately that three people had been killed in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, two in the eastern Donetsk region and one in the capital Kyiv.

“Today the terrorist state, the Russian federation, launched a massive missile strike on the territory of Ukraine. The enemy fired 55 air and sea-based missiles ... from Tu-95, Su-35 and MiG-31K aircraft as well as from ships in the Black Sea,” Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s top military commander, wrote on social media.

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“Forty-seven cruise missiles were shot down by air defence assets of the armed forces of Ukraine, 20 of them in the area of the capital...The Russians’ goal remains unchanged – psychological pressure on Ukrainians and the destruction of critical infrastructure. But we can’t be broken!”

State power firm Ukrenergo said: “This is already the 13th missile strike and 15th drone attack on Ukraine’s energy system. There are strikes and damage to equipment in the southern, central and southwestern regions. In the Dnipro region the main high-voltage equipment was destroyed at one power facility.

“There are power supply problems caused by shelling in the south, including Odesa region. During the attack emergency shutdowns were implemented throughout Ukraine ... The deficit in the system is significant. Consumption limits have been set for all areas.”

People all over Ukraine have endured long blackouts through the winter months since Russia started targeting the national grid in October. Kyiv and its western allies call the deliberate destruction of critical infrastructure a war crime, but Moscow claims the sites are legitimate targets because they serve Ukraine’s military command and general war effort.

The Kremlin condemned a US announcement that it would send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, and Berlin’s decision to supply 14 of its Leopard tanks and to allow other nations to also transfer the German-made vehicles from their militaries to Kyiv.

“There have been repeated statements from European capitals and from Washington that the sending of various weapons systems, including tanks, to Ukraine by no means signifies the involvement of these countries or Nato in the hostilities in Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. “We strongly disagree with this. Moscow perceives everything which the alliance and the capitals that I mentioned have been doing as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that it is growing.”

German defence minister Boris Pistorius said the Leopards sent from his country would reach Ukraine in “late March, early April”, and that training for Ukrainian crews on German Marder infantry fighting vehicles would begin in the next few days and “a little later” on the tanks.

Britain plans to send 14 of its Challenger tanks to Ukraine, and UK defence department minister Alex Chalk said on Thursday that “the intention is that [they will arrive] at the end of March”.

Russia and Ukraine are believed to be gearing up for major offensive operations in spring. Moscow says its troops are now slowly gaining ground in eastern and southeastern Ukraine, but Kyiv insists that the situation on the frontline is under control.