UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS
By Beyza Binnur Donmez
GENEVA (AA) – The EU on Friday reiterated its stance of backing Kyiv "as long as" needed following a wave of Russian airstrikes overnight on Ukraine that killed dozens of people.
"Overnight, Russia launched one of the largest attacks since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine against cities and the population," Josep Borrell, the bloc's foreign policy chief, said on X.
"It was yet another cowardly and indiscriminate targeting of schools, a metro station and a hospital, resulting in the death of at least 16 people and several wounded," Borrell said and added: "The EU stands with Ukraine as long as it takes."
In a separate post, the foreign policy chief stated that he spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and that the EU is "committed in 2024 to provide additional military equipment to support Ukraine in resisting Russia's invasion."
"Ukraine's fight for freedom against tyranny is a shared fight," he said.
Russia rained down bombs on various parts of Ukraine during nearly 160 overnight airstrikes, including a hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile, with the country's president and the army chief on Friday reporting some casualties and damage.
Earlier, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Telegram that Russia carried out a massive air attack on the country's industrial and military targets last night.
Zaluzhnyi claimed that 158 airstrikes were detected by Ukrainian radars, with 114 successfully repelled.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a separate statement that Russia launched 110 missiles targeting objects in the Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Both Zaluzhnyi and Zelenskyy said people were killed and injured in the attacks, but did not provide specific figures, whereas the Lviv region authorities said one person was killed and 13 were injured in the attacks.