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Kyiv strikes: three die in early morning attack by Russia Kyiv strikes: three die in early morning attack by Russia
(about 3 hours later)
A child was among the dead, according to Ukrainian officials, in one of the most deadly attacks in recent weeks Girl and her mother reportedly among the dead from falling debris after short-range missiles intercepted
Three people were killed in an early morning air attack on Kyiv, the city’s military administration and mayor said. Three people including a child were killed and at least 11 people were injured in an early morning missile attack on Kyiv that hit apartment buildings, two schools and a children’s clinic, according to city authorities.
After a reported 17 attacks on the Ukrainian capital in May, mostly using drones, Russian forces hit the city in the early morning of Thursday, damaging apartment buildings and a medical clinic. The attack, on what is International Children’s Day in many post-Soviet countries, reportedly involved 10 Iskander short-range missiles, and there was only a few minutes’ warning before they hit. Most of the damage appeared to be from falling debris after the incoming missiles were intercepted by the capital’s air defences.
In an early morning update, Kyiv’s military administration said three people were killed, including one child, after earlier reporting that two children had been among the victims. Initial reports said an 11-year-old girl, her mother and another woman were killed. There was also a child among the wounded. Nearly 500 children have been killed in military attacks in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The number of injured fluctuated in preliminary reports, but the casualties still were the most from one attack in the past month. According to the Ukrainian air force, the attack used seven Iskander-M ballistic missiles and three Iskander-K cruise missiles, all of which it claimed were intercepted. It continued a pattern of near daily strikes – 17 in May alone – using a mixture of drones, ballistic and cruise missiles, apparently aimed at demoralising the population and exhausting supplies of anti-aircraft ammunition before an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.
After a woman was killed watching an aerial attack from her balcony earlier this week, Kyiv authorities urged residents to stay in shelters or other safe locations. A distraught man interviewed on Kyiv television said his wife was one of the victims of Thursday’s attack. He said she had run to a local shelter after an air raid siren went off but the shelter was closed and she was caught out in the open and struck by falling metal from an intercepted missile.
Ukraine’s air defences have become increasingly effective at intercepting Russian drones and missiles, but in some cases the resulting debris causes fires in buildings and on the ground. Much of the damage was in Kyiv’s eastern district of Desnianskyi, where debris fell on a children’s hospital and a block of flats, also damaging two schools and a police station. In a second eastern district, Dniprovskyi, another apartment block was damaged by burning debris setting nearby parked cars on fire. In the nearby Darnytskyi neighbourhood, there was damage to a water pipeline and a residential area.
On Wednesday, Russian forces carried out three aerial attacks over the south of Kherson region, along with missile and heavy artillery strikes on other parts of the region. Meanwhile, Ukrainian-backed Russian rebel groups claimed to have made another incursion into Russia’s Belgorod region, this time at the village of Shebekino.
On Monday, an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital sent residents running for shelter again after overnight strikes. “Very soon we will see the outskirts of Shebekino,” a spokesperson for the Russian Volunteer Corps said in a video posted on Telegram on Thursday morning. “Unfortunately, we are unable to provide evacuation for the civilians, from the border area, because the army of the Russian Federation is shelling these areas and in such way prevents the evacuation. Therefore, remain at home and don’t be afraid, the fighters of Russian Volunteer Corps are not fighting civilians.”
A video message from a second group, the Freedom of Russia Legion, said: “Very soon we will set off into Russia again, to bring freedom and peace.”
The statement said a rebel raid into Belgorod last month had led to the capture of Russian military equipment. “Thanks to these we’ll be able to arm more of our comrades,” the spokesperson said. “We are going to liberate the entire Russia from Belgorod to Vladivostok in order to raise white-blue-white flag of freedom in Moscow.”
Belgorod authorities reported shelling in Shebekino and claimed a battle was under way to stop an incursion by what they called “saboteurs”. There have been sporadic blasts in the region along Ukraine’s north-eastern border since last month’s raids.
In Krasnodar, a Russian city just east of occupied Crimea, an oil refinery caught fire after being hit by a drone, according to the local authorities, who did not say where the drone had come from.