Girl, 9, killed in missile attack
THE latest pre-dawn Russian missile attack on Kyiv has killed at least three people, including a nine-year-old girl and her mother, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian air defences on Thursday shot down all 10 cruise and ballistic missiles launched by the Kremlin’s forces but falling debris caused damage and casualties on the ground, wounding 16 people.
Russia has kept up a steady barrage on the Ukrainian capital and other parts of the country in recent weeks as Kyiv readies what it says is a counteroffensive to push back Moscow’s troops, 15 months after their full-scale invasion.
Kyiv was the target of a reported 17 drone and missile attacks last month.
The attack using what Ukrainian officials said were short-range Iskander ground-launched missiles coincided with events scheduled in Kyiv to celebrate International Children’s Day.
Those events were cancelled. Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska said one child was in hospital after the attack.
“Children’s Day has to be about safe childhood, summer, life,” she tweeted.
“But today it is about new crimes of [Russia] against children.”
Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted to say the dead include a nine-year-old girl, her mother and another woman.
The casualty toll is the most from a single attack on Kyiv in the past month.
The onslaught also damaged apartment buildings, a medical clinic, a water pipeline and cars.
Earlier, the city government said two children were killed before revising the number to one.
One explosion sent missile fragments ripping through an apartment building in a leafy neighbourhood.
In the morning light, paramedics escorted an elderly woman gingerly away from the building as the bare feet of a person killed in the attack poked out from underneath a plastic tarpaulin in a roped-off area between the trees.
“(At) around 3am there was a strike over there. I woke up and saw the fire. My door was smashed. I woke up my mum and ran to the corridor,” said resident Nikita Maslun, peering through a broken window.
“Then we went down and ran outside. We saw people running. Windows were shattered and balconies destroyed.”
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities were investigating why a shelter at a medical facility was locked, preventing some people from taking shelter during the bombardment.
Russia has repeatedly targeted Kyiv with waves of drone and missile attacks since the start of the invasion, but attacks against the capital have significantly intensified over the past month.
While most incoming weapons are shot down, many Kyiv residents are anxious and tired after weeks of sleepless nights listening to the sound of explosions.
Ukraine’s air defence has become increasingly effective at intercepting Russian drones and missiles but the resulting debris can cause fires and hurt people below.
Elsewhere, a group calling itself the Russian Volunteer Corps and purporting to include Russians fighting on the Ukrainian side released a video claiming they were on the border with Russia and about to launch a cross-border raid on the town of Shebekino in the Belgorod region.
A similar group that calls itself the Freedom of Russia Legion also announced a plan to launch a crossborder raid.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Ukrainian shelling left eight people hurt overnight but there had been no incursion by enemy forces.