Russian strikes killed at least 21 people in Ukraine.

KYIV — Russian missiles and drones hit Kyiv and a dozen other regions overnight into Wednesday, killing at least 21 civilians, including four children, and wounding about 60, the Associated Press reported. The heaviest loss was in Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region, where a strike destroyed an apartment block and killed 15 people, including four children. President Volodymyr Zelensky had said the day before that intelligence expected a massive attack. Ukraine knew it was coming and could not stop it.

The barrage fell on Vladimir Putin’s 74th birthday. Zelensky called it one of the most vile strikes and a birthday “gift,” and said Russia fired 70 missiles, many of them ballistic. He said the intent was to strike painfully and demonstratively. Deaths were also reported in Kyiv and other cities. Moscow’s defense ministry said it had carried out a massive strike on military-industrial sites. Zelensky said Ukraine answered with strikes on oil facilities in the Perm, Samara, and Astrakhan regions. Officials warned the toll could still rise.

The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively.

The photograph is Zelensky in Kyiv on Oct. 4, the newest public still of him. It is not the rubble in Pryluky. The War desk files the barrage. The enrichment terms are the front.