Explosions rock Kyiv after ballistic missile alert as Russian strikes hit homes and a mall amid escalating attacks between Russia and Ukraine
KYIV: Several blasts could be heard in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv overnight, AFP journalists there said Sunday, after a Ukrainian air force alert reported the approach of ballistic missiles.
One explosion was so strong that it set off alarms in cars parked in the city centre, one AFP journalist noted.
Just moments earlier, Ukraine’s air force reported that ballistic missiles were headed towards Kyiv in a post on Telegram.
Russia has been firing drones and missiles at Ukraine’s capital and other cities almost daily since it launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Kyiv’s military administration reported that an apartment building had been hit in Shevchenkivsky district, and a shopping and entertainment centre in the Dniprovsky district.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a home was on fire in the Sviatoshynsky district.
The latest strikes came after Ukraine sent explosive-laden drones to destroy e-commerce warehouses in the Moscow and Tambov regions Saturday, killing eight people and causing major fires.
In Ukraine, Russian strikes killed five people and wounded almost 20 others in regions stretching the country’s southeast Saturday.
Kyiv has in recent months intensified its strikes on Russian territory, disrupting the lives of ordinary Russians — strikes it calls retribution for more than four years of bombardments against its territory.
The campaign, which Kyiv calls “long-range sanctions”, has mostly targeted Russia’s oil infrastructure triggering a full-blown fuel crisis in one of the world’s biggest oil-producing countries.
