Russian strikes kill 4, injure dozens in Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine: Dozens of people were injured and least four killed after a wave of Russian missiles targeted Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine, setting residential buildings ablaze and reducing others to rubble.
Rescue workers in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city near Russia’s border, hauled injured residents from the scene of an attack where smoke rose from smouldering piles of rubble, AFP journalists reported.
The regional governor said three residents were killed in the overnight barrage and another 42 had been wounded.
Medical workers treat one wounded man with blood smeared across his face, AFP saw.
AFP journalists in Kyiv meanwhile heard air raid sirens echo over the capital at night, followed by a series of loud blasts – thought to be air defence systems responding to the incoming aerial onslaught.
Ukrainian army chief Valery Zaluzhny said Russian forces had fired 41 missiles – including cruise, ballistic and surface-toair missiles as part of the barrage –adding that his forces had shot down 21.
In the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 20 people were wounded in an attack that set buildings and cars ablaze in central districts of the city.
Daryna Bodenchuk, a 17-yearold interior design student, said she was in her dormitory at the time of the strikes. They shook the building and blew open the door of the basement where she and others had taken shelter.
“I am very upset. It’s really scary. A window was broken also in our dormitory. It was loud,” she told AFP.
Iryna Zalizna, a 25-year-old resident of Kyiv, had already left home for work when the strikes hit her neighbourhood. She said rushed back to take stock of the destruction.
“All the windows and a few frames were blown out there,” she told AFP.
Mayor Klitschko said that 13 people had been hospitalised, including a 13-year-old boy, and that one woman was in intensive care ward.