Kyiv: Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv early Sunday, setting off fires and wounding at least three civilians, while attacks on other parts of Ukraine later killed at least two people, local officials reported.
The strikes come as Ukraine’s successful drone attacks have stalled the Russian army’s advances in an expanded campaign inside Russia that has been causing fuel shortages and piling pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
In Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, Kremlin-installed authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike had killed four civilians in the city of Horlivka. According to Ivan Prikhodko, the city’s Russian-appointed mayor, the city had been under fire since the early hours of Sunday.
According to Russia’s defence ministry, Russian forces overnight struck down 133 Ukrainian drones over Russia, the Black Sea and Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russian attacks set fire to tower block near Kyiv centre
Blasts rocked Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday, with falling debris sparking a blaze in a tower block near the historic centre, according to mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Elsewhere in the capital, falling debris set fire to buildings, cars and car parks, Klitschko added. He said three people had been wounded, with one needing hospital treatment.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in his evening address Friday that intelligence assessments indicated that Russia was preparing missiles for a large attack, saying there were indications that this could happen in the next 48 hours.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed Sunday that its latest attack on Kyiv had struck sites linked to drone production.
Also Sunday, a drone strike on Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city in the east — killed one person and wounded at least six others, including two children, mayor Igor Terekhov reported.
In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian glide bomb killed one man and wounded at least six other people, according to mayor Ivan Fedorov.
Both Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia have been frequent targets for Russian attacks, with Zaporizhzhia — just over 20 kilometres from the front line — suffering heavy bombardment in recent months.
Tit-for-tat strikes
Friday, a major Russian strike near Kyiv killed at least 10 people and wounded around 100 others, part of a cycle of tit-for-tat attacks that dims the potential of reaching a diplomatic end to Russia’s more than 4-year-old invasion of its neighbour.
Meanwhile, Finnish President Alexander Stubb claimed Sunday that Ukraine’s position is stronger than ever since the war began.
Following a call with his Ukrainian counterpart — and appearing to allude to Kyiv’s recent drone campaign that has struck major Russian energy sites and sought to choke off military supplies — Stubb wrote on X that continued support from (Ukraine’s partners is critical to keep up the momentum.