Russia’s second missile assault on Kyiv this week has injured at least 53 people, and damaged homes and a children’s hospital according to Ukrainian officials.
Key points:
- Homes, a children’s hospital and a kindergarten are among the buildings reportedly damaged from Wednesday’s strike
- Ukraine’s national police said on social media that 18 people were hospitalised
- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his main priority was to strengthen air defences.
The windows of residential apartment blocks were blown out and frightened residents streamed onto the street to assess the damage, which included a large crater in the ground and destroyed cars.
Ukraine’s air defence systems downed all 10 ballistic missiles that targeted the capital at about 3am local time, Ukraine’s Air Force said on the Telegram app.
Falling debris caused injuries and destruction in four of Kyiv’s districts along the Dnipro River, which cuts through the capital.
Thirty-five buildings were damaged, according to the city’s military administration.
Ukraine’s national police said 53 people, including six children, had been injured by the attack.
Eighteen people have been hospitalised, it said in a social media post.
“There was no air raid siren. At around 4am, I heard an explosion. We fled to the corridor, (the explosion wave) threw me into the doors,” Olena Ustinova, 45, a local administration clerk, told Reuters.
“I regained consciousness and started to shake the doors but they were blocked.
“I shouted for help from my balcony and emergency workers came to help me.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was visiting Norway on Wednesday, said his main priority was to strengthen air defences.
His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, praised Western-supplied air defence systems and their operators.
“The effectiveness of Western weapons in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers cannot be doubted,” Mr Yermak said.
The air force said it also shot down all 10 Russian-launched attack drones over the Odesa region in southern Ukraine.
Windows and entrances at a children’s hospital in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district were shattered by debris, but based on initial assessments, there were no casualties, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
“These (ballistic) missiles fly at a speed up to 8,000 kph,” Mr Klitschko told Reuters.
Kyiv military administration chief Serhiy Popko said 17 people, including seven children, were evacuated from a residential building in the Dniprovskyi district after debris hit a building and nearby cars, causing a fire.
The attack followed a salvo of ballistic missiles that targeted Kyiv on Monday and injured four people.
There was no comment from Russia about Wednesday’s attack, which also damaged buildings in Kyiv’s Desnyanskyi, Darnitskyi and Holosiivskyi districts.
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Reuters