UMAN, Ukraine: At least 12 people were killed early Friday morning in a new wave of Russian strikes on several cities in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky denouncing “a perverse act” which he says will lead Moscow to “failure and the punishment”.

“This Russian terror must get a just response from Ukraine and the world,” Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram. “Every attack, every evil act once morest our country and (our) people brings the terrorist state closer to failure and punishment,” he said once more.

Friday morning, at least ten people were killed in Ouman, in the center of the country, where a missile hit a residential building, according to the latest report communicated by the Minister of the Interior.

“The rescuers have just recovered three other bodies from under the rubble” for a total “of ten victims at 10:05 a.m. (07:05 GMT),” Minister Igor Klymenko said on Facebook.

At least nine other people are hospitalized, regional governor Igor Tabourets detailed on Facebook.

Another Russian strike, on Dnipro, a large city in central-eastern Ukraine, killed “a young woman and a three-year-old child,” Mayor Borys Filatov said on Telegram.

According to the Kiev military administration, 11 cruise missiles fired from strategic bombers were shot down in the sky of the capital, as well as two drones, without causing any notable casualties or destruction.

In total, the Ukrainian army announced on Telegram on Friday morning that it had shot down “21 X-101/X-555 type cruise missiles out of a total of 23 as well as two drones”.

The missile attack was launched “around 4 a.m.” (0100 GMT) from Russian Tu-95 type strategic bombers located in the Caspian Sea area, according to the same source.

In Uman, a city of some 80,000 inhabitants and site of the traditional pilgrimage of Hasidic Jews located some 200 kilometers south of Kiev, AFP journalists saw a gutted apartment building with numerous rubble on the ground.

Two dead bodies were pulled out of the rubble by rescuers.

According to Governor Igor Tabourets, two cruise missiles hit the city, one hitting a residential building and the other a warehouse.

– Fewer strikes –

In kyiv, a power line was cut following the fall of a debris which also damaged the roadway, according to the authorities.

“No civilian casualties or damage to residential buildings or infrastructure have been reported” in the capital, said the head of the Kiev air defense forces, Sergey Popko, quoted by the administration.

In the city of Ukrainka, near Kiev, shrapnel from a downed missile fell on a building injuring a young girl, who was hospitalized, according to regional governor Ruslan Kravchenko.

While Russia regularly bombs Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, massive strikes have become rarer in recent months.

This is the first attack of this magnitude on the Ukrainian capital since early March.

The Russian strikes carried out during the winter targeted energy infrastructure in particular, regularly causing massive cuts in electricity and running water. These attacks then involved dozens of missiles.

This Russian tactic, assumed by President Vladimir Putin, did not, however, bend kyiv.

The Ukrainian air defense system has indeed been reinforced in recent months by the delivery of Western equipment, crucial for the country’s war effort. In particular, kyiv received the sophisticated American Patriot systems in April.

The Ukrainian capital was the target last week of an attack by 12 Iranian-made drones, eight of which were shot down, without causing any casualties.

Most of the fighting has taken place since the beginning of the year in the East for control of the industrial region of Donbass, and in particular in and around the city of Bakhmout, almost entirely destroyed by the longest clashes and bloodiest of the war.

Ukraine says it has been preparing for months a counter-offensive aimed at repelling Russian forces from the territories they currently occupy in the east and south.