Ukraine repels large Russian missile and drone attack that injures civilians in Kyiv

KYIV — Ukrainian officials said air defences shot down 20 Iranian-made drones fired by Russia mostly at the Kyiv region early on Thursday, but wreckage fell on four districts of the capital, wounding two people and destroying several homes.

The latest barrage by the Kremlin’s forces began shortly after midnight, and explosions shook different parts of the city. Two people were hospitalised with shrapnel wounds, authorities said.

In the capital, rescuers extinguished a fire in a 16-story building, as well as in a non-residential building, the Interior Ministry said. Debris also smashed into the frontage of a 25-story apartment building, it said.

Russian strikes have become a grim part of everyday life in Ukraine over the almost 17 months of the war.

Meanwhile, a senior officer leading Russian forces against Kyiv’s recent counteroffensive in southern Ukraine, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, was reportedly killed by a Ukrainian missile strike.

Tsokov died when the Ukrainian military struck the city of Berdyansk on Tuesday with UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, according to retired Gen. Andrei Gurulev, who commanded the 58th Army in the past and currently serves as a lawmaker.

Russia’s Defense Ministry hasn’t reported Tsokov’s death.

In the aftermath of the nighttime attack on Kyiv, Volodymyr Motus, a 22-year-old resident of the 25-story building, carefully picked his way across the floor of a destroyed apartment, his footsteps crunching shattered glass. The mangled furniture was coated in a thick layer of dust.

“I was in my apartment and suddenly I heard a boom, that’s all. Then the alarm went off and I went down to the shelter.”

He said that some people were injured, but they were all alive.

In May, Russia launched dozens of drones and missiles at Kyiv almost every night, forcing its residents to spend their nights in shelters.

During the summer, attacks came less frequently, but they still strike unpredictably across the country.

Ukraine’s human rights chief Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram, “It should be explained that each air alarm’ in Ukraine is like playing Russian roulette… It’s unknown the number of people who could be affected, and it is uncertain from which part of Ukraine bad news about the strike of an enemy drone or missile will come.”

The Ukrainian military said it also intercepted two Russian cruise missiles. The statement said one ballistic missile wasn’t intercepted, although it didn’t explain what damage the missile caused.

The government of the region of Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine reported that a cruise missile was intercepted over the region, and reported no casualties.

 “We appreciate the meticulous work of Ukraine’s air defense forces,” the regional administration wrote on Telegram.

Recently, a Russian cruise missile struck an apartment building in the western city of Lviv, resulting in a death toll that reached 10, and leaving dozens injured.

And in the southern and eastern regions of the country, where heavy fighting is taking place on front lines, the intensity of missile attacks has remained high since the beginning of the war.

At least three civilians were killed and 38 more sustained injuries in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office reported on Thursday morning.

In the partially occupied Donetsk region, Russian forces targeted 13 cities and villages under Ukrainian control with aviation, missiles and heavy artillery.

In the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region, the number of wounded by drone debris on Wednesday rose to 21, and fires broke out in the city of Kherson after Russian shelling.