UMAN, Ukraine — A rocket slammed into an apartment block in central Ukraine on Friday morning, as a Russian aerial assault against towns and cities across the country killed at least 23 people and injured dozens more, officials said.
In the first wide-ranging Russian assault against civilian targets in more than a month, air alarms blared around 4 a.m. as Russian bombers over the Caspian Sea unleashed about two dozen cruise missiles at targets across Ukraine.
The deadliest attack appeared to be in the central city of Uman, which is nearly 200 miles north of the front line and has not been a frequent target of attacks.
At least 21 people were killed in Uman and 18 were wounded, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter that rescue workers would search “until they make sure that no one else is left under the rubble.”
One of the rockets hit a nine-story residential building, reducing the front to ruin, Ihor Klymenko, the head of Ukraine’s National Police, said on the Telegram messaging app. More than 100 people lived in the block, where more than half of the 46 apartments were destroyed, he said.
“The entire town heard that awful explosion,” said Tetiana, a local hotel administrator who asked that her family name not be published out of safety concerns. “It has been quiet for a while, and we had a feeling like life is coming back to normal. And now, again.”
Ihor Taburets, the head of the regional military administration, said that two 10-year-olds were among the dead. In addition to the residential buildings, the missiles hit a warehouse, he said. Mr. Taburets posted photographs of rescue workers scrambling amid the smoke and debris.
Explosions also rang out in the central city of Dnipro around 4:30 a.m., according to the local authorities. Serhii Lysak, the head of the regional military administration, said a young woman and child had been killed in an attack. At least four others were injured in the city.
Ukrainian officials condemned the strikes as a sign of Russia’s unending aggression and called again for more advanced Western weapons to fend off the attacks. Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said on Twitter: “The way to peace is to kick Russia out of Ukraine. The way to peace is to arm Ukraine with F-16s and protect children from Russian terror.”
In the capital, Kyiv, explosions in the sky were heard before dawn. Local officials said that 11 cruise missiles and two drones had been shot down over the region. Debris from one rocket rained down on an apartment in Ukrainka, about 25 miles south of the capital, injuring a 13-year-old-girl, local officials said.
The Kyiv city military administration said it was the first missile attack on Kyiv in more than 50 days.
The main thrust of the attack came from Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers, which fired 23 cruise missiles from near the Caspian Sea toward the central, eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander of Ukrainian military forces, said in a statement. He said Ukrainian air defenses had shot down 21 of the missiles.
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed it had used “high-precision, long-range” missiles in what it claimed was a concentrated strike against places where Ukrainian reservists had gathered.
“The goal of the attack has been reached,” it said in a statement on Telegram, without detailing the cities that had been hit or offering evidence on its claims about the targets.
Anna Lukinova contributed reporting.
