LAST UPDATE | 2 Jun
RUSSIA PUMMELLED UKRAINE overnight with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, killing at least 13 people, after having threatened a large-scale attack and warning foreign citizens to leave Kyiv.
AFP journalists in the capital heard air raid sirens wailing over the city before a series of loud explosions that lasted throughout the night sent residents with bags and blankets rushing to shelter in crowded metro stations.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said the latest Russian attack was a sign of Russian desperation, that President Vladimir Putin was bombing civilians since his forces were struggling on the battlefield.
“Putin is a war criminal and loser who has no cards except terror. Moscow is losing on the battlefield. No number of missiles can change this,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said in a statement on social media.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the latest attack showed Europe needed to develop its own air defence systems and that support from the United States remained crucial.
“Europe needs its own anti-ballistic defence so that this war can finally be brought to an end. And assistance from the United States in supplying missiles for Patriot systems is absolutely necessary,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 73 missiles and 656 drones, adding it had downed 602 of the drones and 40 of the missiles.
Moscow has bombarded Ukraine almost daily since launching its invasion in February 2022, a war that is now the bloodiest on European soil since World War II, with hundreds of thousands killed and millions displaced.
Russia said it had carried out a huge strike, including with hypersonic missiles, targeting Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.
It denies that its forces target civilians.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said four people were killed and at least 65 were wounded, including two children.
And in the industrial city of Dnipro further south, nine people were killed including a child, when a four-storey apartment building collapsed, Zelenskyy said. Several people were still unaccounted for, he added.
A maternity hospital with newborns and women in labour was also struck in the southern port city of Odesa, authorities said, adding there were no casualties.
AFP journalists saw explosions and huge plumes of smoke billowing across Kyiv’s skyline at dawn, while rescue workers cleared debris beneath multi-storey residential buildings gutted in the attack.
At least one part of the city was cut from electricity in the attack, AFP reporters said, while the operator of Ukraine’s electricity grid announced there were outages in six regions of the country.
Fifteen people, including a child, were also wounded in the eastern city of Kharkiv that lies near the Russian border, according to the mayor, Igor Terekhov.
Aughinish Alumina investigation
Meanwhile, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke this morning said his department is carrying out an investigation into Aughinish Alumina.
It’s the only producer of alumina in Ireland and operates from a plant in Co Limerick.
It was reported in the Irish Times that 83% of alumina from the Limerick plant went to Russia in the first quarter of this year.
An investigation by a number of European media outlets, including the Irish Times, claimed that alumina shipments from the Limerick plant to Russia were converted into aluminium in a number of smelting factories in Russia.
The aluminium was allegedly sold on by a Moscow-based aluminium trader to a range of weapons manufacturers.
Burke disputed that 83% of alumina from the Limerick plant was sent to Russia and said the actual figure is around 45%.
He added that his department is “doing a deep dive” investigation to ensure that the Irish-exported alumina is not eventually being purchased by arms companies in Russia.
Burke told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that this will be “challenging, because obviously you need boots on the ground in Russia to absolutely assess where it ends up”.
He said he hopes the investigation will be “completed shortly”.
“I’m not going to give a direction to say that it has to be completed next week or the week after.
“They have to do their job diligently, assess the facts, and then come back with an evidence-based study that will be forwarded on to the European Commission.”
‘Protect your lives’
Moscow and Kyiv last month had agreed a three-day ceasefire mediated by the United States. The truce was marred by allegations of violations on both sides but had raised the prospect of a longer halt in fighting.
An uptick in strikes since has dulled peace prospects, particularly with the White House distracted by fighting with Iran.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike killed one person in Russia’s Kursk region, near the Ukrainian border, regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said.
Another drone sparked a fire at an oil refinery in the southwestern city of Krasnodar, its operational headquarters said on Telegram.
Zelenskyy had said last week that Ukraine had learnt that Russia was preparing a new massive strike and urged people to heed the sirens, go to shelters and “protect your lives”.
Moscow’s warning to foreigners, including diplomats, had sparked an outcry including at the United Nations.
Zelenskyy has reiterated his call to allies to allow and finance the supply of Patriot missiles, which can intercept Russian ballistic missiles.
He wrote to US President Donald Trump and the US Congress last week asking for Patriot systems to respond to the intensifying Russian air attacks.
Ukraine has also stepped up its strikes on occupied territories and on Russia in retaliation for the daily Russian bombardments.
Russia launched a record 8,150 long-range drones at Ukraine in May, an AFP analysis of Ukrainian air force data showed, up 24% from April.
Kyiv intercepted about 90% of all incoming drones and missiles in May, according to air force data – but struggles to down ballistic missiles, some 33 of which were fired in the latest overnight barrage.