Russia claims responsibility for a massive airstrike in Ukraine, presenting it as a response to Kyiv's "terrorist acts."

Russia asserted on Tuesday that the large-scale overnight attack on several Ukrainian cities was a direct response to what it called "terrorist acts" committed by Kyiv on Russian territory. The Russian Ministry of Defense maintains that it targeted exclusively military objectives.

According to Moscow, the strikes targeted a range of infrastructure and facilities linked to the Ukrainian war effort. Russian authorities describe the operation as a retaliatory measure following several attacks attributed to Ukraine against sites in Russia in recent days.

On the Ukrainian side, the toll is particularly heavy. Authorities indicated that Russian missiles and drones struck the capital, Kyiv, as well as other cities in the country overnight. At least eleven people were killed and more than a hundred others wounded, according to initial figures.

Images broadcast from Kyiv show severely damaged residential buildings. Emergency services were mobilized in several districts of the capital, where fires broke out after the impacts.

This attack comes after several days of warnings issued by Ukrainian officials. The president Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior officials had raised the possibility of a large-scale Russian offensive in retaliation for Ukrainian operations carried out on Russian territory.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has thus escalated once again, marked by increasingly deep strikes on both sides of the border. Moscow regularly accuses Kyiv of carrying out "terrorist" actions, while Ukraine claims to be targeting infrastructure supporting the Russian military effort.

As fighting continues on several fronts, this nighttime attack is among the deadliest recorded in recent weeks and underlines the persistent remoteness of any prospect of de-escalation between the two countries.