Russia targets cities across Ukraine after Zelensky remarks at UN

Russian missiles and artillery targeted cities across Ukraine on Thursday, days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the United Nations.

Air raid sirens could be heard in cities from the east to the west in Ukraine amid the attacks.

In the southern city of Kherson, overnight Russian strikes hit a dormitory, killing three people and injuring four others, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Later in the morning, the defense ministry said a Russian projectile hit an apartment building, killing an 81-year-old woman.

In Kyiv, missile strikes injured seven people, three of whom were sent to city hospitals, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post.

Some buildings in the city also sustained damage, including a dormitory of a vocational technical institute in the Darnytskyi district, Klitschko said. In the Shevchenkivs’kyi district, Klitschko said a 16-year-old girl was hospitalized.

The Ukrainian Air Force claimed it intercepted 36 of the 43 cruise missiles in Ukraine. The Associated Press reported Kharkiv was struck with S-300 missiles.

In the Slobidskyi district of Kharkiv, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said at least six strikes damaged civilian infrastructure, sending two people to the hospital.

Another 10 people were injured and at least one person was rescued from under the rubble in Cherkasy in central Ukraine, according to a post on Telegram from Ihor Klymenko, minister of internal affairs of Ukraine.

Cherkasy regional Gov. Ihor Taburets said up to 23 people may still be buried under the rubble as rescuers work to clear the debris.

Strikes were also reported in the city of Rivine and in the western region of Lyiv, according to The AP.

The series of attacks comes on the heels of Zelensky’s address to the general assembly on Tuesday, where he urged U.N. members to join Ukraine’s fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning the Kremlin’s war will come for them next.

Zelensky is expected to meet with President Biden at the White House on Thursday as the Biden administration pushes for increasing funding to the embattled country. Biden has vowed the U.S. will stand with Kyiv “for as long as it takes” for the country to win its fight against Russia.

The visit will mark Zelensky’s second trip to the White House in the past year, after he traveled to Washington last December to meet with Biden and deliver an address to a joint session of Congress.