Chaos, terror and confusion across Ukraine tonight as
the country reels from a barrage of missile strikes on
at least a dozen cities in total. Russia launched about
84 cruise missiles toward Ukraine, a dozen regions in
the crosshairs. The attacks left at least 14 people
dead. At least five of those deaths were in Kiev alone
Moscow has to targeted civilian sites throughout the
war as we know. But Russian president Vladimir
says these strikes were in response to the explosion of
a key bridge that connects the Russian mainland to the
Crimean peninsula. The Kerch bridge is logistically
important for Moscow, but it's also seen as a symbol of
the Kremlin's occupation of the southern Ukrainian
peninsula. Newsy national correspondent Jason Bellini
has been following the latest developments from here.
Jason, thanks for being on tonight. What do we know
about how this all began Well, hey there Alex, well,
can tell you is tonight there are tens of thousands
Ukrainians who are in darkness because these attacks
hit critical infrastructure including electricity. Many
people also without water. You need electricity in
Ukraine to pump the water. Now, as you mentioned, these
attacks came in the morning during rush hour, you had
Children who just arrived at school, they need to
shelter at their school and the attacks landed in
central Ukraine. And this is very significant because
really at the very beginning of the invasion. Even then
there were attacks that hit so central in areas that
are near the country's parliament and causin
destruction in areas where it's never been seen before.
And this is after many months of there being very few
attacks. It's been around four months since there was
an attack on Kiev. So this was significant. It wasn't
just it was all over the country, but tonight,
President Zelensky is sending another message of
defiance, horror and chaos in Ukraine's capital as
Russia. And issues a string of missile attacks
targeting bridges, power plants and other civilian
infrastructure. The strikes on keith were the first in
four months, explosions rocked at least a dozen cities,
including La Vive in the west and Heart, Kiev in the
northeast. The blast shook cities that in recent months
enjoyed relative normalcy, with most of the fighting
concentrated in the south and the east. There was an
explosion. Everything was shaki We don't know we
were here in this place. If not, I don't know what
could have happened to us. We were here between the
walls, here is the chair and everything was flying and
I was screaming, the footage from the ground is gut
wrenching. One young woman saying, my hands are shaking.
I just saw a rocket go by and then this Russian
President Vladimir Putin said during a televised
address. The strikes were conducted in retaliation,
revenge for the Ukrainian attac on a bridge to Crimea
and other attacks in Russia that Putin described as
terrorist actions along with Putin's accusations, a
threat if the attempts to carry out terrorist attacks
on our territory continue, Russia's responses will be
tough and proportionate to the level of threats posed
to the Russian Federation. No one should have any
doubts about this. But amid the violence and terror, a
rallying cry from Ukrainian President Vladimir Ze
recorded outside the presidenti office in Kiev, not
far from where the blasts rang out just hours before
they seek panic and chaos. They want to destroy our
energy system. They are hopeless. They deliberately
chose such a time. Such goals in in order to cause as
much harm as possible. But we are Ukrainians helping
each other. We believe in ourselves, we restore
everything that was destroyed. Now there may be
temporary interruptions and electricity, but there will
never be interruptions with certainty. The certainty of
victory. A sentiment echoed by the Ukrainian people
even as they shelter in place underground in the subway
the national anthem reverberati off the dark walls. A
promise to keep the faith and keep fighting. Russia
launched its missiles from air, land and sea. We're
talking about strikes that are a great distance away
from the front lines of this war where most of the
attacks had been concentrated until now and again,
we're seeing critical infrastructure that's come unde
attack and it's going to take Some time for Ukraine to
replace that. But they're gonna be working on restoring
electricity even as they're bracing for more attacks.
And I can tell you that there were 83 missiles,
according to Ukrainian official 83 missiles that were
launched by Russia. They were able to shoot down 43 of
them and that's just not an accepted ratio. And they
want to get that down to zero of course. And it just
highlights the issues they have with having inadequate
air defense systems. And that's the topic on which
President Zelensky spoke with President Biden today.
President biden saying that they're hurrying up,
getting some advanced air defense systems to the
contrary Alex, just terrifying for so many people.
Newsy National correspondent, Jason Bellini appreciate
it.