Four people have been killed and more than 50 others injured in a large wave of Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and its surrounding areas.
Explosions were heard across the region overnight into Sunday. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said “it was a terrible night”, with damage reported in all of the capital’s districts, including to residential buildings and schools.
Three children are among the injured, with rescue work under way.
The strikes follow Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vow to retaliate after accusing Ukraine of carrying out a deadly attack on a student dormitory in the town of Starobilsk on Friday in which 18 people were killed.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said it did carry out an attack near Starobilsk in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine overnight on Friday, but maintained that it struck an elite Russian military unit.
Russia’s overnight strikes on Sunday came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned there were signs that Russia was preparing “a combined strike on Ukrainian territory”.
He cited intelligence from Ukraine, Europe and the US suggesting Russia could be planning to use the Oreshnik missile, which reportedly travels more than 10 times the speed of sound and is currently impossible to intercept.
There has not yet been any confirmation of Russia using the missile in its latest bombardment.
The attack hit more than 40 locations across Kyiv, with falling debris causing fires in residential buildings, warehouses, a supermarket and a shopping centre, Klitschko said.
“The capital has been subjected to a massive ballistic attack. Further launches are possible,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv’s military administration wrote on Telegram shortly after midnight.
A person was killed after a nine-storey residential building in the central Shevchenko district was hit and a fire broke out on the top floors.
The same district, a strike near an air raid shelter at a school blocked its entrance with debris, trapping several people inside.
Emergency services rushed to multiple scenes of damage across the city, putting out blazes, clearing debris and treating the injured.
In the Kyiv region surrounding the capital, two people were also killed, according to regional head Mykola Kalashnyk.
He described the attack as “deliberate terror against peaceful people”, adding that “emergency services are working in all places”.
