Russia strikes Kyiv in daylight after series of nighttime barrages
Explosions rattledkyiv during daylight Monday as Russian ballistic missiles took aim at the Ukrainian capital, hours after a more common nighttime barrage of the city by drones and cruise missiles.
Russian forces fired 11 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv at about 11:30 a.m. (0830GMT; 4:30 a.m. EDT), according toukraine’s chief of staff, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. All of themwere shot down, he said, and puffs of white smoke could be seen in the blue sky over the city from street level.
Debris from the intercepted missiles fell in Kyiv’s central and northern districts during the morning, landing in the middle of traffic on a city road and also starting a fire on the roof of a building, the Kyiv military administration said. At least one civilian was reported hurt.
The blasts unnerved some locals, already under strain after being awakened by the night attack.
“Afterwhat happened last night, I react sharply to every siren now. I was terrified, and I’mstill trembling,” shared Alina Ksenofontova, a 50-year- old woman who took refuge in the Kyiv subway with her dog Bublik.
The central station, Teatralna, was crowded with sheltering locals.
Artem Zhyla, a 24-yearold who provides legal services abroad, took his laptop with him and kept working underground.
“I heard two or three explosions, went to the bathroom, and then I heard five or seven more explosions. That’swhen I realized something terrible was happening,” he said.
Like many others in the capital, he feels exhausted and stressed. However, he has no intention of giving up and plans to attend his yoga class to recharge.
“This is certainly not enoughtobreakus,” he said.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska both posted a video of what they said were frightened schoolchildren running and screaming down a Kyiv street toward a bomb shelter as sirens wailed.
“This is what an ordinary weekday looks like,” the president wrote on Telegram.
Russia used Iskander short-range missiles in the morning attack, the spokesman for Ukraine’s air force said on local television.
The missiles were fired from north of Kyiv, Yurii Ihnat said, without clarifying if hemeantrussian territory. Kyiv lies around 380 kilometers (236 miles) from the Russian border.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it launched a series of strikes early Monday targeting Ukrainian air bases with precision longrange air-launchedmissiles. The strikes destroyed command posts, radars, aircraft and ammunition stockpiles, it claimed. It didn’t say anything about hitting cities or other civilian areas.
Ukrainian Foreignminister Dmytro Kuleba warned against indifference, saying the repeated strikes on civilian areas amounted to “war crimes.”
“Russia’s drone and missile attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities cannot be seen as usual, no matter how frequent they grow,” he tweeted in English.