skip to main content

Russian missiles kill one, wounds four in air strike on Ukraine - Kyiv

A Ukrainian solider looks at a memorial to killed Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Matsievsky in Kyiv
A Ukrainian solider looks at a memorial to killed Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Matsievsky in Kyiv

Russian warplanes fired 19 long-range missiles at targets in Ukraine this morning, killing one civilian in a central region, wounding four more and damaging an industrial facility, Kyiv officials said.

The strike was the first big salvo of missiles Russia has fired at targets, including the Ukrainian capital, in weeks. Russia has mainly been using drones for its overnight attacks in recent weeks.

"Unfortunately, one person is dead. Preliminarily, four people are wounded. They are all in hospital. Two people are in severe condition," Dnipropetrovsk's regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on the Telegram messaging app.

Air defences shot down 14 incoming missiles over the region outside Kyiv and the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments.

The strike damaged an unnamed industrial facility and more than a dozen homes in the towns of Pavlohrad and Ternivka and the village of Yuryivska, Mr Lysak said.

Russia used seven Tu-95 bombers to launch missiles at different regions across the country, the air force said in a statement.

Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said the Ukrainian capital had been targeted in the attack but that all the missiles were downed by air defences as they approached.

Missile debris damaged privately-held homes in several settlements in Kyiv region, smashing windows and destroying some walls, governor Ruslan Kravchenko said.

Air alerts were announced at about 7am local time and lasted for over two hours.

Officials reported an earlier overnight missile attack that struck the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said rescuers and police were clearing rubble after the attack damaged a five-storey residential building, at least seven residential homes and 20 cars.

Ukrainian servicemen of the 42nd Mechanised Brigade dig trenches during a military exercise in Donetsk earlier this week

"The occupiers hit Kharkiv six times," the head of the regional military administration, Oleg Synegubov, wrote on Telegram, adding that one person had received medical treatment on the spot.

The districts of Kholodnohirskyi and Shevchenkivskyi were hit and residential buildings in the area were damaged, he said.

Initial information suggested the projectiles were S-300 missiles, he added.

The mayor of Kharkiv, Igor Terekhov, counted "at least five strikes" and one person wounded.

A coal mine in the eastern town of Toretsk was also hit yesterday afternoon in a separate attack, according to the Ukraine's energy ministry.

One person working on the site was injured and taken to a hospital, according to the ministry, which reported "significant damage".

Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure last winter left millions in the cold and dark for extended periods.

Kyiv has bolstered its air defence systems since with Western arms, but says that it needs more weapons to protect vulnerable regions.