UKRAINE bombed Russia with its latest “Long Neptune” cruise missiles in a massive overnight blitz, President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed.
It comes as Ukrainian forces targeted a critical Russian oil depot and port in the Black Sea last night.
Footage showed the Novorossiysk oil terminal in flames after the blitz, causing massive damage.
The strike is said to have targeted several key facilities used for oil exports – which help fuel Vladimir Putin’s war effort.
However, it is not clear if the oil depot was struck by the cruise missile.
Footage shared by Zelensky shows the missile blasting from its launcher in night.
Zelensky, without mentioning any targets, said: “Overnight our warriors successfully used ‘Long Neptunes’ against designated targets on Russian territory, and this is our entirely just response to Russia‘s ongoing terror.
“Ukrainian missiles are delivering increasingly significant and precise results virtually every month.”
He added that such strikes were getting more successful all the time.
The missiles, used successfully in combat tests in March, have a range of 621 miles, Zelensky said at the time.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s general staff said it was increasing the effective use of domestic long-range weapons, including Neptune-type missiles.
“This is causing the enemy considerable trouble,” the General Staff wrote on Tuesday.
Two industry sources told Reuters earlier that Russia‘s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk had halted oil exports after a Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
Meanwhile, Russian forces launched a massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv early on Friday, striking residential buildings and triggering explosions throughout the capital.
Six people were killed and dozens were left injured in the huge strike that targeted almost every district in the capital, authorities revealed.
Russia used at least 430 drones and 18 missiles in the attack that left gaping holes in some city buildings, Zelenskysaid.
Officials said falling debris and fires damaged high-rise apartment buildings, a school, a medical facility and administrative buildings in areas scattered throughout the city of some three million.
Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said almost every district in Kyiv was under “massive” attack after the Russians launched swarms of drones and several missiles.
An elderly woman was killed and at least 24 people, including a pregnant woman and a 10-year-old boy, were wounded in the attack, authorities revealed.
Ukrainian emergency services rescued more than 40 people from fires and destruction across the city.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said: “The Russians are hitting residential buildings.
“There are a great many damaged multi-storey apartment buildings, in practically every district.”
He said both drones and missiles had been deployed and emergency crews were dispatched to several neighbourhoods.
Pictures posted on social media showed different sites in flames and residents gathering in rubble-strewn streets outside apartment buildings.
In the Darnytskyi district, debris landed in the yard of a residential building and on the grounds of an educational facility.
A car caught fire after being hit by falling fragments.
Debris damaged three apartment buildings, a private household and caused a fire in an open area in the Dniprovskyi district.
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In the Podilskyi district, at least five residential buildings and a nonresidential structure were damaged.
Falling debris sparked a fire in an open area near a medical facility and inside a nonresidential building in Shevchenkivskyi.