Russia launches massive counterattack against Ukraine

Russia launched a massive airstrike on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Monday, as Ukraine's advance into Russia's mainland has been underway for nearly three weeks. Neighboring countries such as Poland and Belarus are also nervous about the potential widening of frontlines.

According to Reuters, Russia launched massive drone and missile strikes across Ukraine this morning, targeting cities including Kyiv and Kharkiv. “Russia launched dozens of drone strikes, some of which were intercepted,” the Ukrainian military said. Russia also mobilized 11 Tupolev Tu-95 long-range strategic bombers to launch multiple missiles. Ukrainian authorities reported no deaths in Kyiv, but at least three people were killed in the Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Lutsk regions, and power and water supplies were disrupted in parts of Ukraine.

Ukraine has been anticipating a massive Russian missile attack in the run-up to its Independence Day on Saturday. After successfully capturing the southern Kursk Oblast, which borders Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, this month and recently threatening Belgorod, another border town near Kharkiv, Ukraine believed that Russia would launch a major counterattack. In fact, the day before, Russia had fired six missiles into Ukraine's frontline regions of Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Donetsk, killing at least four people. This led the U.K.'s Telegraph to comment that it remains to be seen whether Ukraine's surprise attack on Russia's mainland will be a masterstroke that turns the tide of the war or a terrible mistake.

Neighboring countries are also on high alert for the possibility of expanding frontlines. In particular, the pro-Russian state of Belarus has recently amassed large numbers of troops and equipment from the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organization, on its border with Ukraine, prompting the Ukrainian government to call for their withdrawal, Reuters reported. Earlier, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko criticized Ukraine's raids into Russia's mainland, saying that the country had “deployed a third of its troops to the border.”


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