At least nine people died and 28 others were injured, including four children, in an attack carried out in the early hours of this Saturday by the Russian Army on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, according to local authorities.
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The city mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that several explosions shook the city after Russia attacked at least four of its districts with ballistic missiles.
“Explosions in the city! Kyiv is suffering a ballistic missile attack,” Klitschko warned, who had initially stated that “one fatality was recorded.”
An hour later, the mayor confirmed that the death toll had risen to three, reaching a total of nine in the early hours.
The same authority announced that “nine people lost their lives in the capital as a result of an enemy attack. Twenty-eight Kyiv residents were injured, including four children”.
He then added: “Seventeen of the injured are being treated in hospitals. The rest received medical assistance on an outpatient basis or at the scene.”
During the explosions, the Ukrainian Air Forces confirmed that several “ballistic missiles” were heading “from the north towards Kyiv.”
The capital’s mayor also urged residents to seek shelter and reported that there were several fires in the districts of Holosiivskii, Darnytskii, Shevchenkivskii, and Solomianskii.
“In the Solomyanskii district, a fire broke out in a six-story non-residential building after being hit. In the Holosiivskii and Darnytskii districts, debris fell on non-residential buildings,” he began detailing.
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He also specified that in “the Solomyanskii district, there are cars on fire in a parking lot. In the Darnytskii district, a missile has hit a non-residential area. In the Shevchenkivskii district, there is a fire in a car wash.”
“In the Solomyanskii district, there are people trapped in a five-story building after rocket debris fell on it. A fire has broken out in the courtyard of a residential building,” he added in a post on his social networks.
Russia again attacked the Ukrainian capital with long-range ballistic missiles, a common Moscow tactic aimed at wearing down local air defenses that struggle to intercept this type of projectile.
In response to the reactivation of this offensive, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, requested in recent months from his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, to accelerate the supply of Patriot air defense systems to stop the attacks.
“Failing to achieve its objectives on the battlefield, Russia is intensifying its air attacks and terror against civilians. Ukraine urgently needs additional air defense and missile defense systems, as well as interceptors,” declared the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, on social media.
Sybiha insisted on the need to obtain these defense systems, indirectly pointing to the White House on the importance of “speed in decisions and delivery.”
“Every decision that strengthens the defense of the Ukrainian sky saves human lives, while every delay leads to deaths and war crimes. It is the battle for the skies that will define the course of this war. The stronger the air shield over Ukraine, the closer peace will be,” he concluded.
