Russia Pounds Kiev With 100 Missiles As Air War Escalates In Deadly Tit-For-Tat

The Ukrainian capital of Kiev was pounded by Russian ballistic and hypersonic missiles on Tuesday morning, in a massive series of strikes which also targeted other cities, resulting in a reported death toll of at least five people killed and some 130 others injured.

The day prior, Russian President Vladimir Putin had vowed to "intensify" strikes against Ukraine in retaliation for the major Saturday cross-border attack on Belgorod, which killed at least 24 Russians, including children.

Later in the day Tuesday the scale of the attack on Kiev has come to light, showing that the Kremlin is clearly trying to send a 'message'. The New York Times writes that "The barrage — which the Ukrainian Air Force said involved about 100 missiles, including hypersonic weapons that fly at several times the speed of sound — was the latest in an escalating cycle of air assaults between the two countries, as both sides look for ways to inflict damage away from the largely deadlocked front line."

Ukrainian Armed Forces commanader Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, said the army was able to successfully intercept about three-quarters of the Russian barrage. He claimed that all ten hypersonic missiles were destroyed with the assistance of Western-delivered Patriot missile batteries. Increasingly, Ukraine has been reliant on US-supplied anti-air systems, and has been begging to urgently receive more, even as it faces a troop manpower crisis.

The northeastern Kharkiv region was also targeted in the Tuesday morning attack. The oblast's capital of Kharkiv city sits just south of Russia's Belgorod. Within hours later, Ukraine launched a retaliatory attack of at least eight missiles on Belgorov. Regional media says one Russian civilian was killed and four others injured, citing the local governor.

All of this points to a dramatic and deadly escalation in the air war between the two sides as civilians pay the price. This as the front lines has remained somewhat stalemated, with Russia apparently content to solidify its military hold over the bulk of the four annexed territories in the east and south.

The Tuesday strikes on Kiev included tragic scenes like the following, according to the AP:

At a nine-story Kyiv apartment building where two people were killed, 48-year-old Inna Luhina was getting ready for work when a blast shattered her windows and she and other family members, including her 80-year-old mother, were struck by flying glass.

More than 100 survivors gathered at a school set up as a temporary shelter.

Currently, Ukraine is in possession of advanced Western weaponry, including medium to long-range missiles and Patriot batteries, and yet is woefully lacking in frontline ammunition, including artillery shells, but also manpower. 

This state of things could lead to increasing desperation. This could mean many more instances of risky cross-border Ukrainian attacks on Russia which ensures an escalation of the air war.

A missile "dud" falling into the water has been widely circulating on social media...

Ukraine's upping its cross-border attacks on Russian territory might also be part of a last-ditch strategy to increase political pressure on Putin from within, but in the meantime the Kremlin is sure to respond harder by pummeling places like Kiev. Civilians on both sides will suffer as a result.