Russian missiles streaked into Kyiv early Thursday in the biggest assault on the Ukrainian capital in weeks, injuring at least 13 people and damaging several residential buildings and industrial facilities, according to local officials.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that air defense systems had intercepted all 31 of the Russian missiles that targeted Kyiv. Still, debris from the downed missiles fell in various parts of the city, causing the injuries and damage. No deaths have been reported so far.
“Such terror continues every day and night,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a social media post that included a video of firefighters dousing burning buildings with water.
The attack began in the early morning with loud blasts jolting residents awake around 5 a.m. as air defense systems went into action. Many people rushed to take shelter in subway stations. Several orange fireballs lit up the sky, apparently the result of missile interceptions.
Air-raid alerts ended at 6:10 a.m. just as sun rose, revealing the damage.
Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, said on Telegram that missile debris had caused fires in at least three residential buildings and in parking lots. He said emergency responders had been deployed to help victims. Four people were hospitalized, the city’s military administration said.
Photos of the aftermath of the attack released by Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, and the local authorities showed burned-out cars in front of a building with a facade blackened by fire, a large hole at the foot of a pink building with all of its windows shattered, and a destroyed house on charred ground.
