Ten hurt in Kyiv attack
Ukraine calls for more aid amid barrage of russian bombardment
Kyiv: Ten people including a teenage girl were wounded after Ukrainian air defence systems downed two Russian missiles over the capital, sending metal debris crashing to the ground.
Authorities in the eastern Kharkiv region also announced a 65-year-old man had died in the courtyard of his home during a bout of Russian shelling.
Journalists in Kyiv saw emergency workers in helmets clearing concrete and bent metal from one building ripped open during the attack, the third aerial bombardment of the capital in just five days.
Moscow has escalated its aerial attacks on Kyiv, targeting key infrastructure in the wake of fatal Ukrainian bombardments on Russian border regions.
Reporters heard several explosions and air raid sirens in Kyiv almost simultaneously as officials urged residents to take shelter.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack showed again that Ukraine needed better air defence systems from its allies.
“It means safety for our cities and saved human lives. All of us in the world who respect and protect life need to stop this terror,” he wrote on social media.
Emergency services said 10 people were wounded, while Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the teenager was among those taken to hospital, and two pregnant women suffered acute stress reactions.
Oksana, a Kyiv resident, was at work when she first heard the air raid sirens and then a blast.
“Before I could do anything, the first explosion hit,” she said. “There was a cloud of dust, smashed cars, windows, everything.”
The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Sergiy Popko, said Russia had attacked with two ballistic missiles launched from the annexed Crimean peninsula.
He said both had been shot down but falling debris crashed onto several central districts. Officials said an arts academy building and a gym were damaged.
“Again this morning Russia is attacking Ukraine with hypersonic missiles,” the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, wrote on social media.
“Ukraine needs our assistance now. There is not a moment to lose,” she added, in reference to a Us$60bil (Rm283.5bil) military aid package held up in the US Congress.
The Kyiv attack came after almost a dozen people were wounded in a Russian drone strike on southern Ukraine overnight.