Russia hits Kyiv with a ballistic missile, damaging buildings and schools – National
Russia used a powerful Oreshnik ballistic missile in a drone and missile attack in Kyiv on Sunday that killed at least two people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday, marking the third time the weapon has been used in the four-year war.
Heavy airstrikes destroyed buildings in the Ukrainian capital, including government offices, residential buildings, schools and a market, Ukrainian authorities said. At least 83 people were injured in the attack.
A siren sounded at night as smoke billowed across the city due to the strikes. Associated Press reporters heard a powerful explosion near the city center near government buildings.
The attack included 600 drones and 90 air, sea and ground missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Ukrainian air defenses destroyed and intercepted 549 drones and 55 missiles. About 19 missiles failed to reach their target, the Air Force said.
Ferit Hoxha, Albania’s foreign minister, reported that the residence of the Albanian ambassador to Ukraine was hit during the attack, which he criticized as “unacceptable” and a “gross escalation”.
The Oreshnik, capable of carrying nuclear or conventional weapons, attacked the city of Bila Tserkva in Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
Russia had vowed to retaliate for the attack on Friday
The Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday confirmed the use of this weapon, along with other types of missiles, to attack “military control points in Ukraine,” air bases and military industrial enterprises. The ministry added that the attack was in retaliation for Ukraine’s attacks on “public facilities on Russian territory,” without providing details.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday condemned a drone strike on a college dormitory in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine, and Moscow condemned Kyiv. He said there are no military or law enforcement agencies near the college. Putin said he ordered the Russian military to retaliate.
The death toll from the strike rose to 21, Russian authorities said late Saturday. They said 42 other people were injured in the incident last night. The authorities installed in the Kremlin in the Luhansk region announced two days of mourning for the victims.
Get the latest country news
Get the best Canadian news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you never miss a trending story.
At an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the strike, held at Russia’s request, Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Melnyk denied his Russian counterpart’s accusation of war crimes, calling it a “pure propaganda show” and asserting that the May 22 operations “only target the Russian war machine.”
Kyiv’s European allies, including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, condemned Russia’s strikes and use of Oreshnik in statements published on Sunday. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said top politicians from EU states will meet in a few days “to discuss how to dial back international pressure on Russia.”
Ukraine strives to dismantle all ballistic missiles
Zelenskyy said that not all missiles were fired and most of the strikes hit Kyiv, which is the main target of the attack.
The apparent failure of the intervention underscored Ukraine’s chronic shortage of air defense missiles capable of downing ballistic missiles. Kyiv relies heavily on US Patriot air defense systems to intercept such weapons, but interceptors are still in short supply and are among Ukraine’s urgent requests to its Western allies.
Developing a domestically produced alternative has become a priority for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, although doing so will require time and funding.
Fires break out in the morning in Kyiv after the attack
Damage was recorded in 50 places in several districts of the capital, including residential buildings, shopping centers and schools, Ukrainian emergency services said in a Telegram post. It also says the buildings of the police department.
The fires continued to rage into the early hours of the morning, complicating rescue efforts as buildings collapsed from the explosions.
“It was a terrible night, and there has never been anything like this in the whole war,” said Kyiv resident Svitlana Onofryichuk, 55, who has worked at the injured market for 22 years.
“I am very sorry that I have to say goodbye to Kyiv now, I don’t live there anymore, nothing is happening,” he added. “My work is gone, everything is gone, everything is burned.”
Yevhen Zosin, 74, a resident of Kyiv who witnessed the attack, said that when he heard the explosion he rushed to catch his dog.
“Then there was another explosion and he and I were thrown like a pin by the shock wave. We both survived, he and I. My apartment was blown to pieces,” he said.
In the village of Kyiv, in Shevchenko, a five-story apartment building was hit, causing a fire, and one person died, Ukrainian emergency services said.
The school building was damaged by the attack while people took shelter inside, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Local authorities reported that supermarkets and warehouses across the city were also damaged.
Many communities recorded damage across Kyiv region, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, who heads the regional administration.
Elsewhere, a Ukrainian plane killed a citizen in the Russian city of Grayvoron, in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border, local authorities reported Sunday morning.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down or intercepted 33 Ukrainian aircraft overnight Sunday, including in the Moscow region, western and southwestern Russia, and Russian-controlled Crimea.
–Associated Press writer John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.
