KYIV
\nRussia launched a huge wave of missile strikes across Ukraine while people slept on Thursday, killing at least six civilians, knocking out electricity and briefly forcing Europe\u2019s biggest nuclear power plant off the grid.
\nThe first such mass attack on targets far from the front since mid-February shattered the longest calm since Moscow began an air campaign against Ukraine\u2019s civil infrastructure five months ago. Kyiv said it included an unprecedented six kinzhal hypersonic cruise missiles, one of Moscow\u2019s most valuable weapons.
\n\u201cThe occupiers can only terrorise civilians. That\u2019s all they can do. But it won\u2019t help them. They won\u2019t avoid responsibility for everything they have done,\u201d President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a statement, describing strikes that hit infrastructure and residential buildings in ten regions.
\nRussia\u2019s defence ministry said it had carried out a \u201cmassive retaliatory strike\u201d as payback for a cross-border raid last week.
\nIt claimed to have hit all its intended targets, destroying drone bases, disrupting railways and damaging facilities that make and repair arms.
\nVillagers in Zolochiv in Ukraine\u2019s western Lviv region carried a body in a black plastic bag over the rubble of a brick house completely destroyed by a missile.
\nThey put the body into the back of a white van with two others, of at least five people killed there. A dog lay curled up on a carpet in the ruins.
\nOksana Ostapenko said the house belonged to her sister Halyna, whose body was still buried under the rubble with two other family members.
\n\u201cThey still haven\u2019t found them. We were hoping that they\u2019re alive. But, they\u2019re not alive,\u201d she said.
\nAnother civilian was reported killed by the missiles in the central Dnipro region. Three civilians were separately reported killed by artillery in Kherson.
\nMoscow says its campaign against targets far from the front, which began in October, is intended to reduce Ukraine\u2019s ability to fight. Kyiv says the air strikes have no military purpose and aim to harm and intimidate civilians, a war crime.
\nIn the capital Kyiv, the seven-hour alert through the night was the longest of Russia\u2019s five-month air campaign.
\n\u201cI heard a very loud explosion, very loud. We quickly jumped out of bed and saw one car on fire. Then the other cars caught on fire as well. The glass shattered on the balconies and windows,\u201d said Liudmyla, 58, holding a toddler in her arms on a Kyiv street near wrecked cars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV Russia launched a huge wave of missile strikes across Ukraine while people slept on Thursday, killing at least six civilians, knocking out electricity and briefly forcing Europe\u2019s biggest nuclear power plant off the grid. The first such mass attack on targets far from the front since mid-February shattered the longest calm since Moscow began […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-318753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n