At least 18 people were killed and more than 130 injured after Russia attacked Ukraine’s largest cities with waves of rockets.

In a somber evening speech, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had fired around 40 missiles of different types.

More than 200 locations were affected, including 139 houses, with many killed in “an ordinary residential high-rise building,” Zelenskyy said. “Normal people lived there.”

He promised a strong response.

“The Russian war will inevitably be returned to where this evil originated, where it must be suppressed,” he said.

The northeastern city of Kharkiv suffered three waves of attacks. There were also attacks on the capital Kiev and in central Ukraine, while the southern Kherson region came under constant shelling.

Oleksandra Terekhovich ran into the hallway of her Kharkiv home when she heard the first explosion. The second explosion hit the building next door, shattering its windows and doors, she said.

“There are no more tears. Our country has been experiencing what is happening for two years. We live with the horror within us,” she told the AFP news agency.

The relentless Russian bombardment kept Ukrainians on tenterhooks while the 1,500-kilometer front line, where soldiers waged positions and artillery warfare, barely moved.

Analysts say Russia stockpiled missiles late last year in preparation for the latest campaign, which a U.S. official said was an attempt to probe weaknesses in Ukraine’s air defenses.

Kharkiv region governor Oleh Syniehubov said more than 100 high-rise residential buildings were damaged in the first two attacks on the city, with Russia using S-300, Kh-32 and hypersonic Iskander missiles. An attack later on Tuesday evening also hit a residential building and other infrastructure, causing more injuries.

The city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said people were trapped in the rubble in temperatures of -7°C (19.4°F).

“All of these buildings were on fire.”

In Kiev, emergency services said the destruction had spread to four districts.

At one site, rescuers tended to leave residents dazed and groaning as workers swept away debris and broken glass.

“There was a very loud bang and my mother was already running outside screaming that we have to leave. “We all went to the corridor,” 21-year-old Daniel Boliukh told Reuters.

“Then we went out to the balcony to take a look and saw that all these buildings were on fire.”

Rescue workers said homes and medical and educational facilities were damaged in the capital. Some of the damage occurred near the United Nations office, coordinator there Denise Brown said in a statement.

Pavlohrad, an industrial city in the eastern Dnipro region, was also attacked. According to the presidential office, one person was killed, two schools and eight high-rise buildings were damaged.

Ukraine’s General Staff said the country’s armed forces destroyed 22 of the missiles and fired nearly 20 over Kiev, the city’s military administration said.

The latest Russian attacks represent an “alarming reversal” of a trend last year when civilian casualties from Kremlin attacks fell, according to the United Nations.

According to the United Nations, more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 20,000 injured since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Kremlin denied that it deliberately targeted civilians in Wednesday’s bombing.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the raids hit companies that make missiles, explosives and ammunition.