Russian cruise missiles crossed into Moldova and Romania, says Ukraine

Two Russian cruise missiles have entered the airspace of Moldova and Romania, Ukraine has said, in the latest attack by Moscow on targets across the country.

Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said the Kalibr rockets crossed into Moldova at 10.18am local time on Friday. They then flew into Romania at 10.33am at the intersection of the state border, before recrossing into western Ukraine, he said.

Romania is a Nato country. It joined the transatlantic military alliance in 2004. There was no immediate reaction from Bucharest to the apparent violation of its airspace by Moscow. Russia has yet to comment.

Yuri Ignat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force, said Kyiv tracked the rockets and had the opportunity to shoot them down over Romania and Moldova but did not do so. “The military understood the risks and threats to the population of a foreign state, so they did not do it right away,” Ignat said.

The incident happened as the Kremlin launched a major missile and drone attack on Friday morning. The air force said “the enemy struck cities and critical infrastructure facilities”. Seven Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones were launched from the Sea of Azov and six Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea, it said.

Air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv and other cities around breakfast time. There were five booms in the Ukrainian capital, apparently from air defence batteries shooting down enemy missiles. A trail of white vapour could be seen above tower blocks and the railway station area. Officials said Ukraine eliminated five drones and five Kalibr missiles.

Friday’s morning raid followed a similar large-scale attack on Thursday night. Russia fired as many as 35 anti-aircraft guided missiles targeting the Kharkiv region in the east and the southern Zaporizhzhia region. The scale of the damage was being assessed on Friday, with parts of Kharkiv and other areas without power.

Mikhail Podolyak, a senior adviser to president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Russian Federation had been “striking at cities all night and all morning”. He called on Ukraine’s western partners to speed up the delivery of sophisticated systems, including long-range missiles and fighter jets.

Air raid sirens sounded in much of Ukraine late on Thursday night. Serhiy Lysak, the military administrator in the Dnipropetrovsk region, said Shahed drones were detected.

The Dnipro Info Telegram channel reported the distinctive “moped-like” sound of Iranian drones hovering in the sky. “Get to shelters and stay there,” it posted. At least one drone was shot down, it said.

Vitalii Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv oblast, said drones were spotted headed towards the regional capital, which has been shelled repeatedly since Russia’s full-scale invasion almost a year ago. “Not that many of them,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

There were further reports of drones in Zaporizhzhia oblast, where fighting is taking place between Russian and Ukrainian forces across a sprawling frontline.

In the eastern Donbas, local people in the Ukrainian-controlled cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk said they could hear explosions. Both urban centres are close to Bakhmut, where fighting has raged for months. Russian troops have been seeking to encircle the city as a prelude to an attack on Kramatorsk, a key Ukrainian military hub.

The attack came hours after Zelenskiy’s trips to London, Paris and Brussels and his address on Thursday to the European parliament, and meeting with EU leaders.

The overnight barrage also came hours after the governor for the Luhansk region said Russia had launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine and was trying to break through defences near the town of Kreminna.

Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian TV that Russian troops had gone on the attack and were trying to advance westwards across a winter landscape of snow and forests. There had been “maximum escalation” and a big increase in shooting and shelling, he said.

“These attacks are practically a daily occurrence. We see small groups [of Russian soldiers] trying to advance, sometimes with the support of heavy armour – infantry fighting vehicles and tanks – and sometimes not. There is continuous firing.”

He claimed the offensive had not worked. “So far they haven’t had any success. Our defenders have been able to hold them back completely,” he said.

Western governments believe Russia is planning a major assault on Ukraine, possibly as early as next week before the 24 February anniversary of the launch of its full-scale invasion. Its main goal is believed to be to capture the Donbas region, including Luhansk, which Ukraine partly controls.

The timing of any attack is unknown. Ukrainian government sources say one scenario would include ballistic missile strikes on large cities, including Kyiv, and an attempt to cut off the east of the country by bombing bridges and advancing in a sweeping arc from the north and south.

Military analysts are sceptical that Russia has enough infantry units to advance rapidly into Ukrainian territory. They acknowledge, however, that some sections of the Ukrainian-Russian border are lightly defended, with the bulk of Ukrainian forces located in the eastern Donetsk province, where fighting rages around the city of Bakhmut.

There are growing signs that even with Russia’s wider battle strategy unknown, a substantial offensive in the east has already started. Russian forces, which dug in and brought in reinforcements after Ukrainian troops retook almost all of Kharkiv province and pushed into Luhansk last autumn, are now moving forward along a broad front west of the towns of Svatove and Kreminna.

Punching through Ukrainian lines there would take Russian forces a step closer to the much larger city of Kramatorsk, a key Ukrainian military hub. Haidai said Ukraine needed “heavy equipment and artillery ammunition, then we will not only be able to maintain the defence but also make a good counter-offensive operation”.

Svatove and Kreminna, which lies about 60 miles (100km) north-west of the regional capital, Luhansk, were both occupied by Moscow last spring. Before the Ukrainian counter-offensive last year, Russia had control of Luhansk oblast, partly captured in 2014, bar a handful of villages.

Artur, a Ukrainian soldier fighting in Kreminna, said: “The fighting has intensified. They launched another offensive last night. So far we are holding our position, but it is tough. They attack in small groups, usually groups of 15 men. We have many injured but they have many more casualties.”

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) confirmed a “marked increase” in operations in the area over the past week in its latest report. It said Russia had made marginal gains along the border between Kharkiv and Luhansk provinces, including in the village of Dvorichne. The offensive had probably not yet “reached its full tempo”, it said.

“The commitment of significant elements of at least three major Russian divisions to offensive operations in this sector indicates the Russian offensive has begun, even if Ukrainian forces are so far preventing Russian forces from securing significant gains,” the ISW report said.