Kyiv, Ukraine. Russian drones and missiles struck the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities early on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than 100, authorities said, after days of warnings about a major assault from Moscow.
Strikes on Kyiv
Photographs from Kyiv showed large explosions and smoke rising over high-rise buildings. The capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said overnight strikes killed four people and wounded 65, including children.
A suspected missile strike on a 24-storey apartment building caused a collapse, leaving people probably trapped under the rubble, Klitschko said. He added that a nine-storey apartment block was among other buildings set on fire by suspected missile debris.
“In the Obolon district, cars are burning after being struck by falling missile debris,” Klitschko said. “There are also fires at two locations in open areas, including one near a kindergarten.”
Residents seek shelter
Thousands of people seeking shelter crowded into the Kyiv subway system early on Tuesday, witnesses said, some carrying pets, belongings and mattresses, as air defence systems repelled the attacks.
Olha Mudra, speaking at the site of one strike with her six-year-old daughter Natalia, said: “We couldn’t understand what was happening – some kind of apocalypse?”
“Everything was covered (with debris), everything in smoke, you could see nothing,” she added, standing in front of a destroyed residential building and damaged cars.
Kyiv resident Valeriia Nafechinko, 32, who was sheltering in a metro station, said: “I only dream that this (war) will end soon, but I’ve lost all hope. I don’t know, it’s hard. Sorry for getting emotional.”
War and retaliation claims
Russia has targeted Ukraine’s power supply and infrastructure in the war, now more than four years old, while Ukraine has intensified attacks this year on Russian oil facilities. Both sides deny targeting civilians.
Last week, the Kremlin warned it intended “systematic strikes” on targets in Kyiv in response to a drone attack on a dormitory in Ukraine’s Russian-held region of Luhansk that killed 21 people. Ukraine denied carrying out the attack.
