Ukrainian President Zelenskyy had recently alerted that Moscow was likely planning further large-scale attacks.
Photo : AP
Ukraine’s capital Kyiv came under attack by Russian ballistic missiles early Monday morning, the country’s air force said, on the eve of a critical NATO summit in Turkey that US President Donald Trump plans to attend. Many civilians are feared dead.
The fresh waves of missiles and drones launched at Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight on Sunday hit multiple residential buildings, just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow was preparing another large-scale assault on the capital. The fresh attack comes barely days after a similar strike on houses in Kyiv had killed at least 41 people on Thursday.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said a residential apartment block in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district was partially destroyed between the seventh and ninth floors after it was hit during the attack. Images and videos shared on social media appeared to show part of the building’s facade collapsing following the strike.
Russia’s war in Ukraine will feature majorly in the upcoming NATO summit, which starts on Tuesday in Ankara. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Trump on a July 4 call lasting nearly 90 minutes, in which the US President offered to help end the Ukraine war.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said debris also struck another residential building in the same district and destroyed a separate non-residential building. Additional damage was reported to garages, a warehouse and another non-residential building in the Holosiivskyi and Darnytskyi districts.
In Bucha, just outside Kyiv, at least three people were taken to hospital, according to Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk.
Explosions were heard across the capital at around 01:40 local time, followed by a second wave of strikes about 30 minutes later. Ukraine’s Air Force warned that dozens of missiles were heading towards Kyiv, while air raid alerts were issued across almost the entire country.
Residents in Sofiivska Borshchahivka, a suburb west of Kyiv, also reported power outages during the attack.
In neighbouring Poland, the Air Force said it had scrambled fighter jets as a precaution to protect the country’s airspace. There were no immediate reports of fatalities in Kyiv, although Mayor Klitschko said some residents remained trapped inside the damaged apartment building.
The latest strikes came hours after President Zelenskyy warned that Russia was preparing another major missile attack and urged civilians to follow air raid warnings. “Intelligence once again indicates that the Russians are preparing a new massive strike,” he said during his evening address. “This is typical of Putin: right after America’s Independence Day and before the NATO Summit in Ankara.”
Zelenskyy also called on Ukraine’s allies to speed up deliveries of Patriot air defence missile systems.