Russian missile and drone strikes rocked Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was preparing a “massive attack.”
Russia has routinely launched waves of missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, during its more than four-year invasion, which has become Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
The attack came after Ukraine’s air force warned that ballistic missiles were headed towards the capital, and Zelensky cut short a visit to Dublin on Wednesday, citing intelligence reports of an impending Russian strike.
AFP journalists in central and eastern Kyiv heard more than a dozen explosions and saw residents — some with children and pets — rushing to shelter in metro stations.
The strikes killed nine people and wounded 34, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said. Head of the city’s military administration Tymur Tkachenko decried the deliberate targeting of civilians and residential areas.
Five districts of the wider Kyiv region were struck in the attack, according to regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk. “During the night, the enemy once again launched a massive attack on the Kyiv region using strike drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles,” Kalashnyk said on Telegram.
He said emergency crews were battling fires at warehouses and a house in the Bucha district, while the attacks damaged homes, a student dormitory and vehicles elsewhere in the region.
Images released by Ukrainian emergency services after daybreak showed extensive damage to a residential block, with a chunk of a building missing.
Zelensky said earlier on Wednesday that he was rushing home from a visit to Dublin due to intelligence reports that Russia was about to launch a massive attack.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused more than two million military casualties, with Moscow’s forces bearing the brunt of the losses, according to a study published Wednesday by US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga called on allies to “not delay decisions on air defense for Ukraine.”(AFP)
