A large ballistic missile attack hit Kyiv early Sunday, wounding at least five people, according to authorities. Moscow had threatened retaliation for strikes in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.
Loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital, causing a residential building near the government district to shake. Dozens took shelter in an underground metro station in the city center, as reported by AFP journalists.
“The capital has come under a mass ballistic missile attack,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, wrote on Telegram.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said five people had been wounded, one of them hospitalized. At least four locations were affected: Shevchenkivsky, Dniprovsky and Podilsky districts. Fires and damage to residential buildings are preliminarily reported.
“A strike drone attack is ongoing; the ballistic missile threat remains present. Stay in shelters!”
Ukrainian authorities and the U.S. Embassy had warned of a possible significant attack on the capital after Russia said it would “punish” those responsible for deadly strikes in a part of eastern Ukraine under its control.
Klitschko said medical teams were called to the Podilsky district, where debris fell in a non-residential area. An attack also sparked a fire near a residential building in nearby Shevchenkivsky.
Kyiv had warned it was expecting a major Russian missile attack after its forces launched a drone barrage in the Russian-occupied east on Thursday. The drone salvo hit a college dormitory and killed at least 18 people, trapping people beneath debris.
Ukraine denied targeting civilians, saying it had hit a Russian drone unit stationed in Starobilsk area.
Russia’s foreign ministry said those responsible would face “inevitable and severe punishment.”
On Saturday, both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the U.S. Embassy issued warnings about the risk of a major Russian airstrike in the coming hours.
“We are seeing signs of preparation for a combined strike on Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv, involving various types of weaponry,” including the Oreshnik, a Russian nuclear-capable hypersonic missile, Zelenskyy said in a social media post.
The U.S. Embassy said it had received information concerning a potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next 24 hours.
Russia’s emergency ministry said it had pulled two more bodies from the rubble of the dormitory, taking the death toll to 18.
Video shared by the ministry showed dozens of rescuers sifting through what remained of a section of the five-story building. Most of those killed and missing were young women born between 2003 and 2008, according to Leonid Pasechnik, the Moscow-backed governor of occupied Lugansk.
The United Nations said it strongly condemns any attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, wherever they occur, adding it could not verify details due to restricted access to the area.
Starobilsk lies about 40 miles from the front line in eastern Ukraine. It was captured by Russian forces in the early months of the offensive in 2022.
Kyiv has recently expanded its drone capabilities and stepped up strikes on undisputed Russian territory, including residential areas and oil export infrastructure.
Moscow has launched mass barrages of missiles and drones at Ukraine almost daily since the full-scale offensive began in 2022, also hitting infrastructure and causing civilian deaths. It denies targeting civilians.
U.S.-led efforts to negotiate an end to more than four years of war have slowed in recent months with Washington’s attention diverted towards its conflict in the Middle East.