Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Russia launches massive overnight strike on Kyiv

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Russia launches massive overnight strike on Kyiv · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And Ukraine says that at least eighteen people have been
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: killed and dozens more injured in an extended Russian missile
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and drone attack on Kiev. The overnight barrage lasted for
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  Speaker 1: eleven hours and forced tens of thousands of residents to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: seek shelter. The mayor says that every district in the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: capital suffered damage. Russia's Defense Ministry says the attack was
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  Speaker 1: in response to Ukrainian strikes on its civilian infrastructure.
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  Speaker 2: The aftermath of one of the largest attacks on Kiev
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  Speaker 2: since the start of the war, firefighters worked into the
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  Speaker 2: morning to put out dozens of blazes after Russia bombarded
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  Speaker 2: the capitol overnight. Rescuers raised to locate potential survivors, pulling
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  Speaker 2: some from the rubble, but others were still believed to
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  Speaker 2: be buried beneath debris. It was.
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  Speaker 3: Unimaginable. The sound was so terrifying that we thought our
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  Speaker 3: building had been hit. You fear that everything is about
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  Speaker 3: to collapse on top of you and you'll be trapped
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  Speaker 3: under the rubble. It was terrifying, absolutely terrifying, which.
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  Speaker 2: Ukraine's Air force said. The Russian attack on Kiev and
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  Speaker 2: other cities included dozens of missiles and nearly five hundred drones.
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  Speaker 2: The bombardment forced tens of thousands to seek shelter in
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  Speaker 2: Kiev's subway system.
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  Speaker 3: I used to go to the shelter often, but now
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  Speaker 3: less so. After the latest attacks, though, I decided to
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  Speaker 3: go because there were just too many strikes on civilian sites.
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  Speaker 2: Authorities had warned Kiev residents to prepare foreign attack, with
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  Speaker 2: Ukraine recently stepping up its own strikes on Russian energy supplies.
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  Speaker 2: Those attacks have caused considerable damage in occupied Crimea and
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  Speaker 2: deep inside Russia. This Ukrainian strike hit an oil refinery
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  Speaker 2: in Moscow two weeks ago. Vladimir Putin has admitted the
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  Speaker 2: strikes have created problems, leading to widespread fuel shortages.
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  Speaker 1: And dw's Nick Connolly is standing by now for us
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  Speaker 1: and Kiev. Nick, Nick, you were at a bomb site
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  Speaker 1: this morning. What struck you the most about the scale
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  Speaker 1: and the precision of last night's attack?
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  Speaker 4: Well, certainly, I think the most depressing conclusion for people
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  Speaker 4: think Kiev is that this time around a lot fewer
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  Speaker 4: of those Russian Blissic missiles were shot down than is
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  Speaker 4: the normal situation even a couple of weeks ago. We
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  Speaker 4: had at least fifty of those missiles intercepted last night,
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  Speaker 4: it seems like less than twenty percent, maybe kind of
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  Speaker 4: fifteen percent of those missiles were incepted. That is a
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  Speaker 4: serious problem, and that is because Ukraine is totally dependent,
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  Speaker 4: as is Europe on the US for those Petri inceptor missiles,
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  Speaker 4: which are the fact of the game in town for now.
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  Speaker 4: In terms of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles. For cruise missiles,
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  Speaker 4: there are lots of other options and the vast majority
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  Speaker 4: of those are intercepted upwards of eighteen ninety percent most
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  Speaker 4: of the time. But polistic missiles there is only one
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  Speaker 4: system and that is a huge problem. So we don't
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  Speaker 4: know whether Ukraine has actually just run out of those
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  Speaker 4: missiles or if they had to just keep some back
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  Speaker 4: for future attacks. But that is a very vulnerable feeling
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  Speaker 4: here in Kiev, and certainly hearing those missiles coming in
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  Speaker 4: with no attendant noise of interception going on is something
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  Speaker 4: people here just aren't used to. We were on the
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  Speaker 4: Left Bank in Kiev, in a kind of fairly normal
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  Speaker 4: residential district where people basically have just had to get
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  Speaker 4: used to this because this is happening to them every
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  Speaker 4: couple of months, people telling us that they had had
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  Speaker 4: their windows knocked out several times, and we're questioning whether
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  Speaker 4: it's really worth putting in new glass or just you know,
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  Speaker 4: boarding it up with some kind of provisional wood structures
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  Speaker 4: or maybe some plastic because they can't just afford to
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  Speaker 4: do this. Every couple of months, we had a real
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  Speaker 4: sense that the numbers are still rising, because when we
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  Speaker 4: arrived there was talk of just one casualty, but lots
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  Speaker 4: of people telling us about different neighbors who they believe
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  Speaker 4: to be dead. The casual figures in total now risen
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  Speaker 4: to twenty one, and still people are unaccounted for. And
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  Speaker 4: I think the really scary thing if you are in
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  Speaker 4: one of these attacks is with a ballistic missile, if
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  Speaker 4: it's coming your way, you basically don't hear it until
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  Speaker 4: it is about to hit. This is not something that
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  Speaker 4: you get much warning for. You don't have time to
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  Speaker 4: even get into a bathroom away from windows. This is
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  Speaker 4: very fast and these are very big rockets, so obviously
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  Speaker 4: the attendant damage is vast. The one residential block we
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  Speaker 4: were at, basically an entire staircase had just been knocked off,
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  Speaker 4: and so you just have this kind of extraordinary kind
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  Speaker 4: of cliff face with lots of tiny specks which were people.
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  Speaker 4: These were people from the Fibrigade and from the EMERT
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  Speaker 4: services kind of digging through the rubble trying to find
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  Speaker 4: people still under them.
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  Speaker 1: And Nick, what's the latest on Ukraine's attempts to restock
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  Speaker 1: those Patriot missiles.
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  Speaker 4: Well, certainly there's constant diplomacy and constant attempts to on
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  Speaker 4: the one hand, get European countries to hand over the
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  Speaker 4: patriot intercept themselves that they have for themselves and also
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  Speaker 4: getting more difficult as those stocks dwindle. Then there's also
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  Speaker 4: obviously attempts to get European country to talk to the
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  Speaker 4: US administration and try and get them to prioritize Ukraine. Obviously,
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  Speaker 4: the Gulf is going to be buying huge numbers of
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  Speaker 4: those interceptors, having run through a lot of their stocks
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  Speaker 4: in recent months. Obviously Taiwan also top up near the
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  Speaker 4: top of that waiting list, and there's obviously incredibly active
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  Speaker 4: attempts to try and find a kind of home made solution.
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  Speaker 4: There is talk of a Ukrainian anti ballistic missile in
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  Speaker 4: sceptor missile or so collaboration with European countries, but so
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  Speaker 4: far we haven't seen them in action. There was one
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  Speaker 4: hope earlier in this war, the European Sampte system that's
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  Speaker 4: French Italian produced, but it seems like, you know, used
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  Speaker 4: in real life conditions, it's not actually able to do
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  Speaker 4: the job. Yet there's talk that that might still be
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  Speaker 4: improved upon and that it might be able to kind
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  Speaker 4: of take this on. But I think the main takeaway
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  Speaker 4: is that Ukraine is now trying to attack Russia's production
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  Speaker 4: of blistic missiles because it's just not feasible financially or
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  Speaker 4: logistically to actually stop these missiles before they fall on
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  Speaker 4: people's heads. Here and key if it's much more realistic
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  Speaker 4: and more likely to work out to actually just methodically
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  Speaker 4: take out Russia's production is for chips for navigation systems
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  Speaker 4: that make these missiles, you know, fly.
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  Speaker 1: This way a big change in the strategy there, Nick,
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to switch gears a little bit and ask
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  Speaker 1: you about German prosecutors bringing charges against a Ukrainian national
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  Speaker 1: for alleged involvement in the nord Stream gas pipeline explosions
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  Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty two. Why have Ukraine's top politicians
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  Speaker 1: been so silent on this. I mean, it's a huge
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  Speaker 1: accusation on the part of the Germans.
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  Speaker 4: I think there is no political interest here in Kiev,
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  Speaker 4: and we haven't seen a lot in Berlin either, rightfully
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  Speaker 4: from the governing parties in talking about this. They if
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  Speaker 4: they are forced into comment people here to say, well,
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  Speaker 4: that's you know, the independent judiciary in Germany doing its
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  Speaker 4: job off record. Obviously you'll get a lot of people
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  Speaker 4: being quite angry that this person faces sipient jail time
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  Speaker 4: judicial consequences for this act. At the same time as
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  Speaker 4: the EU right talks constantly about reducing dependence on Russian energy.
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  Speaker 4: Obviously that destruction of the pipeline did quite a lot
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  Speaker 4: to achieve European kind of reduction in dependence on Russia.
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  Speaker 4: But I think there is no there's no there's no upside,
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  Speaker 4: there's no win here for Ukraine to talk about this publicly.
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  Speaker 4: So I think they're just going to basically keep away
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  Speaker 4: as far as possibly possible and hope that somehow this
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  Speaker 4: kind of just washes over and you know, this thing
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  Speaker 4: kind of drops out of the top headlines.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, but given that the German prosecutors have also alleged,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that this was an action which came directly
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  Speaker 1: from the state, that this individual who has been charged
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  Speaker 1: was acting, you know, essentially on state orders. Kiv must
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  Speaker 1: see the risk that this nord Stream verdict could potentially
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  Speaker 1: complicate its relationship with Berlin.
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  Speaker 4: Well, certainly in terms of the kind of political debate
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  Speaker 4: inside Germany. Right, That's something that Horman was talking about
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  Speaker 4: just now, also about other parties like the AfD that
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  Speaker 4: are a lot more hawkish on this kind of trying
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  Speaker 4: to keep this in the center of national at tension
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  Speaker 4: in Germany. I think for now there's a sense, maybe
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  Speaker 4: it's misplaced here in Kiev that the fiftieth Mounts the
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  Speaker 4: government isn't particularly keen to kind of make this bigger
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  Speaker 4: and isn't going to jump on this or change the
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  Speaker 4: way it supports Ukraine. So I think the kind of
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  Speaker 4: priority for now seems to be just to kind of
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  Speaker 4: keep away and hope somehow, miraculously some other story comes
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  Speaker 4: along and attention wanes.
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  Speaker 1: Nick Connolly with the latest from Kiev. Thank you, Nick,