The air bombardment was deemed one of the largest since Russia launched its invasion in February, said Ukrainian officials, striking eight different regions including major cities such as Lviv and Kyiv. According to the Ukrainian government, at least 12 civilian deaths have been reported.
Videos of the air raid’s destruction circulated Monday on Twitter. Journalist for Voice of America News’ Ukrainian service Ostap Yarysh posted a video showing the moment a missile struck in Lviv, which appears to have hit an infrastructure building.
Another video, shared by the user Edmac, shows clouds of smoke rising over buildings after a missile hit Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. The 47-second video also captures a second missile striking nearby.
Jimmy Rushton, a political analyst based in Kyiv, also shared a video of a missile striking the building that houses the German consulate in Kyiv. The minute-long video, which Ruston said was shared by a “source in the Ukrainian government,” shows two missiles striking nearby buildings.
According to Reuters, the high-rise office building that housed the German consulate has been empty since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Matthew Luxmoore, reporter for The Wall Street Journal, also posted a video of the missile attack in Lviv, which captured several civilians “standing around recording on their phones and calling panicked relatives,” Luxmoore tweeted.
In a video address Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the airstrike from Russia targeted several of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure sites.
“They want panic and chaos,” Zelensky said in the message posted by AFP News Agency. “They want to destroy our energy system.”
Zelensky also spoke with President Joe Biden Monday about the Russian air raid, and wrote on Twitter that air defense was the “number [one] priority” in the countries’ “defense cooperation.”
Biden condemned Russia’s attack on Monday as well, and said that it “demonstrated once again the brutality of Putin’s illegal war.”
Russia’s air raids came shortly after a vow from the Kremlin to respond to an explosion that damaged the bridge that connects Russia to its annexed territory, Crimea, on Saturday. Ukrainian officials have not officially claimed responsibility for the explosion, but did publicly celebrate it.
In his nightly address, Zelensky said that power had been mostly restored in several areas of Ukraine that were affected by the airstrikes, and asked citizens to limit using electrical appliances that consume large amounts of energy from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday.
According to Zelensky, the Ukrainian military shot down 43 of the 84 missiles launched by Russia and stopped 13 of the 24 drones.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian government for comment.
