Russia steps up attacks in Ukraine as offensive gathers pace

Russian cruise missiles crossed Moldova’s airspace and came within 20 miles of NATO member Romania’s border Friday as Moscow unleashed a new wave of attacks targeting Ukrainian cities ahead of a looming full-scale onslaught.

The Kremlin’s forces launched 71 cruise missiles, 35 S-300 missiles and seven armed Shahed drones since Thursday night, Ukraine’s military chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.

Ukrainian forces downed 61 cruise missiles and five drones, he said.

Moldova’s Ministry of Defense confirmed that a missile was detected traversing its airspace near the border with Ukraine. Moldova’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the Russian ambassador in Chisinau has been summoned for talks over the “unacceptable violation”.

According to the ministry, the missile was detected over Moldova around 10 a.m. and flew over two border villages, Mocra and Cosauti, before heading toward Ukraine.

The spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Forces, Yurii Ihnat, said that additional cruise missiles had crossed the airspace of Romania, a NATO member country. Both Zaluzhnyi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later repeated that claim on their respective Telegram channels.

But Romania’s defense ministry denied that, saying the closest the missile came to the county’s airspace was approximately 20 miles.

Romanian Defense Minister Angel Tîlvar assured the public that there was “no reason for concern.”

A Russian missile flying through a NATO country’s airspace has the potential of leading to dangerous escalation.

Under Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, an attack on any of the bloc’s 30 member states “shall be considered an attack against them all.”

Russian missiles and drones struck at least a half-dozen power facilities in Ukraine Friday, causing blackouts across most of the country.

Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said 10 Russian missiles had been shot down over the capital city after air raid sirens blared during the morning rush hour and officials urged civilians to seek shelter.

The fragments of one missile damaged two cars, a house and electricity wires. No casualties were reported.

The bombardment also struck critical infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast. Seven people were wounded there, two of them seriously, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

Zaporizhzhia City Council Secretary Anatolii Kurtiev said the city had been hit 17 times in one hour, which he said made it the most intense period of attacks since the beginning of the war.

The assault followed a familiar pattern of barrages targeting civilian infrastructure, leaving millions of people without power, heat or running water in the dead of winter.

The salvos have often followed Ukrainian diplomatic or battlefield advances.

This latest one came just hours after Zelensky returned from a whirlwind tour of Europe – only his second foreign trip since the start of the invasion — during which he pleaded with allies to provide fighter jets. 

European Council President Charles Michel said the attacks were indiscriminate and constituted war crimes.

“The EU and its member states stand by Ukraine and all Ukrainians. And will further speed up the provision of military equipment, including air defense,” he tweeted.

Ukraine has been bracing for a massive new offensive in the east, which is expected to involve up to 500,000 troops and get underway in the coming weeks to coincide with the Feb. 24 one-year anniversary of the war. 

The situation on the front lines in the Donbas region, which has been mostly static over the winter months, began to shift this week.

After months of artillery battles, mercenaries with the Wagner Group have begun encircling the key city of Bakhmut, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Wagner forces appeared to have advanced nearly 2 miles around the north of Bakhmut since Tuesday — a remarkably rapid push in a battle where front lines have barely moved.

It said they were now threatening the main western access road to Bakhmut, although a Ukrainian military analyst said supplies were still getting through.

Britain also said Russian forces had made some gains near Vuhledar — a strategically important Ukrainian-held bastion at the intersection of the southern and eastern fronts.

But the British report said the limited Russian advances there had most likely come at a high cost in inexperienced units, including at least 30 Russian armored vehicles abandoned in one failed assault.

The Ukrainian positions in Vuhledar have held since the start of the war as a lynchpin for the front lines.

Asked on Ukrainian television if he agreed that the Russian offensive had already begun, Pavlo Krylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said Thursday: “Yes, definitely.”

Ukraine plans its own major military counteroffensive in the spring to reclaim more of the nearly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory that Russia occupies.

But it appears likely to wait until it has received at least some of the new high-powered weapons, including long-range missiles and hundreds of battle tanks and armored vehicles pledged by the West.

With Post wires