Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s capital hurts 5
At least five people, including a teenage girl, were injured on Monday during a Russian missile attack on Kyiv, where falling debris also damaged at least two buildings in central districts.
Moscow has escalated aerial attacks on Ukraine’s capital in recent days, targeting key infrastructure in the wake of Deadly Ukrainian bombardments on Russian border regions.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists heard several explosions and air raid sirens in Kyiv at about 10:30 a.m. as officials urged residents to take shelter.
“Five people were injured in the Pechersky district. Three were treated at the scene. Two were hospitalized,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on social media.
In an earlier post, he said one of those being treated in the hospital was a 16-year-old girl.
Images distributed by emergency services showed municipal workers in hard helmets sifting through piles of rubble next to a large crater.
Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said Russia had attacked with two ballistic missiles launched from the annexed Crimean Peninsula, in what was the third aerial assault on the capital in five days.
Both missiles were downed, but falling debris crashed down in several central districts and damaged two buildings, he added.
“Again, this morning, Russia is attacking Ukraine with hypersonic missiles. Loud explosions in Kyiv,” United States Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink wrote on social media.
“Ukraine needs our assistance now. There is not a moment to lose,” she added, a reference to a $60-billion military aid package held up in the US Congress.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted footage purporting to show schoolchildren running to a shelter at the time of the attack.
“This is a reminder that Ukraine urgently requires more air defense, particularly Patriot systems and missiles capable of repelling any Russian attack,” he wrote.
Ukraine has been appealing to its allies for months for greater air defense capabilities as Russia steps up attacks across Ukraine.
The attack on Kyiv came after almost a dozen people were wounded in a Russian drone strike on southern Ukraine overnight, and a fire broke out at a major Russian power plant following a Ukrainian drone assault.