Russia targets Kyiv in early morning missile attack
Biggest assault in weeks; no deaths reported
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles streaked into Kyiv early Thursday in the biggest assault on the Ukrainian capital in weeks, injuring at least 13 people and damaging several residential buildings and industrial facilities, according to local officials.
The Ukrainian air force said that air defense systems had intercepted all 31 of the Russian missiles that targeted Kyiv. Still, debris from the downed missiles fell in various parts of the city, causing the injuries and damage. No deaths have been reported so far.
“Such terror continues every day and night,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a social media post that included a video of firefighters dousing burning buildings with water.
The attack began in the early morning with loud blasts jolting residents awake around 5 a.m. as air defense systems went into action. Several orange fireballs lit up the sky, apparently the result of missile interceptions.
An estimated 25,000 people, including about 3,000 children, took shelter in the city’s subway stations as air raid sirens wailed for about three hours, officials said.
Survivors, some in tears as emergency workers treated them in the streets, recounted narrowly escaping from their homes.
Raisa Kozenko, a 71-yearold whose apartment lost its doors and windows in the blast, said her son jumped out of bed just in time. “He was covered in blood, in the rubble,” she said, trembling from shock. “And all I can say is ... the apartment is completely destroyed.”
Russia has attacked civilian areas since the war started in February 2022 in an apparent effort to demoralize Ukrainians and break their will to fight. But the attack Thursday hardened Kozenko’s will to prevail.
“I believe in our victory. We will prevail no matter what,” she told the Associated Press.
Air-raid alerts ended at 6:10 a.m. just as the sun rose, revealing the damage.
Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, said on Telegram that missile debris had caused fires in at least three residential buildings and in parking lots. He said emergency responders had been deployed to help victims. Four people were hospitalized, the city’s military administration said.
Photos of the aftermath of the attack released by Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, and local authorities showed burned-out cars in front of a building with a facade blackened by fire, a large hole at the foot of a pink building with all of its windows shattered, and a destroyed house on charred ground.
In the Podilskyi district, which is home to industrial facilities that Russia has targeted in the past, a plume of black smoke was rising early in the morning, suggesting a hit. Klitschko said a fire had broken out at a power substation in the area.
Ukrainian officials rarely confirm strikes on strategic industrial and military targets.
The assault Thursday came at a difficult time for Ukraine’s military, with Russian forces pressing ahead with ground attacks at several locations along the front line of more than 600 miles.
Faced with a shortfall of troops and ammunition, Ukraine has struggled to contain Russian assaults in its east and south. Ukrainian officials have vowed to launch a counteroffensive this year, but experts say the military has yet to receive the kinds of weapons that would let it regain the initiative on the battlefield, with US aid held up in Congress.
On Wednesday, Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, made an unannounced trip to Kyiv in an effort to show the White House’s continued commitment to Ukraine’s defense. He urged Republican lawmakers to pass the stalled package of billions of dollars in aid.
“It has already taken too long,” Sullivan told reporters in a briefing at Ukraine’s presidential office. “And I know that you know that.”
Thursday’s attack on Kyiv echoed a strategy used by Russia during air assaults in late December that consisted of overwhelming Ukraine’s air defenses with multiple launches of various types of missiles, including ballistic and hypersonic ones.
Russia has launched relatively few large-scale missile attacks in recent months, despite a capacity to produce more than 115 long-range missiles per month, according to Ukrainian officials.
Kyiv has better air defenses than most other Ukrainian cities and regions, including sophisticated systems provided by Western allies. The missile interception rate is frequently high, rendering Russian attacks on the capital significantly less successful than early on in the war. Other places, including the port city of Odesa, are more vulnerable and have sustained heavy damage from Russian missiles.