Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s capital with missiles and drones overnight into Thursday, causing loud explosions and shaking Kyiv for hours.
The intense strikes hit residential buildings and triggered a fire in a hotel on a central boulevard, injuring at least 11 people, according to Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
People were also trapped in a damaged nine-storey residential building and a roof of another high-rise apartment building was on fire, Klitschko added.
The mayor urged residents to remain in shelters, describing an ongoing “furious enemy attack” on the capital.
The attack with ballistic and cruise missiles and drones affected all of the city’s 10 districts, on both sides of the Dnipro River. Many residents took shelter at metro stations after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and other authorities issued the first warnings of the attack.
Pictures on unofficial Telegram channels showed residents crowding into underground stations, as multiple explosions were heard in Kyiv.
Zelenskyy had earlier warned that intelligence reports showed an overnight attack on the country was likely and said he was cutting short his stay in Dublin, which he visited for the start of Ireland’s six-month term in charge of the rotating presidency of the EU.
Russia has intensified its attacks on Kyiv in recent weeks, even as Ukraine’s own long-range drone campaign against Russian military sites and energy facilities has caused fuel shortages and disrupted supply lines inside Russia.
Nato member Poland scrambled fighter jets as a preventive measure, the Polish Armed Forces said in a post on X.
“These actions are of a preventive nature and are aimed at securing and protecting the airspace, especially in areas adjacent to the threatened regions,” the post said.
With Reuters and Associated Press
