Kyiv weathers wave of Russian missiles
KYIV - Ukraine said Thursday it had downed nearly an entire barrage of Russian missiles overnight, the latest in an “unprecedented” wave of aerial attacks on the capital Kyiv. The defence ministry said Russian forces had launched 30 cruise missiles from land, sea and air, targeting several regions and killing one person in Odesa.
The military said its air defence units had destroyed 29 of the cruise missiles and shot down four drones. “A series of air attacks on Kyiv, unprecedented in their power, intensity and variety, is continuing,” said Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv’s civil and military administration.
The attack follows other recent barrages in which Ukraine claimed to have downed several advanced Russian Kinzhal missiles. The United States also confirmed that one of its Patriot air defence systems supplied to Kyiv had been damaged, following claims by Russia its forces had fully destroyed one of the advanced systems.
In Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa, one person was killed and two were wounded after a missile hit industrial infrastructure, the military said. In Kyiv, officials reported explosions in the Desnyansky district and said a fire had broken out at a business in the Darnytskyi neighbourhood as a result of falling debris. The military also reported “cruise missile” attacks in the central Vinnytsia region, while local media reported explosions in Khmelnytskyi, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) further west. G7 leaders meanwhile arrived in Hiroshima in Japan to weigh tighter sanctions on Russia, surrounded by reminders about the harrowing cost of war.
An EU official said the leaders meeting in Japan would discuss sanctioning Russia’s billion-dollar trade in diamonds, hoping to further starve Moscow of funds for its war in Ukraine. “We believe we need to limit exports from Russian trade in this sector,” the official said. Separately, a train carrying grain derailed in the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula in what Moscow-installed officials on Thursday called a deliberate act.
“Train carriages loaded with grain derailed in the Simferopol region,” said Crimea governor Sergei Aksyonov. The railway operator said the incident was caused by “the intervention of third parties”.