KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia fired 31 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv before dawn Thursday in the first attack on the Ukrainian capital in 44 days, officials said. Air defenses shot down all the incoming missiles, though 13 people including a child were injured by falling wreckage, they said.
Residents of Kyiv were woken up by loud explosions around 5 a.m. as the missiles arrived at roughly the same time from different directions, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Administration.
Ukraine´s air force said Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles against the capital.
Kyiv has better air defenses than most regions of the large country. The missile interception rate is frequently high, rendering Russian attacks on the capital significantly less successful than during the early days of the war.
Police officers inspect a crater caused by an explosion after a missile attack in Kyiv, on March 21, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP) (Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)
KYIV, UKRAINE – MARCH 21: A crater on the street is seen after a missile strike on March 21, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russians attacked Kyiv this morning with 31 missiles, causing at least 10 injuries, in which was the first strike for weeks. (Photo by Adri Salido/Getty Images)
An 11-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man were hospitalized in Kyiv, the city administration said. Eight other people sustained light injuries, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Ukraine’s Emergency Service said around 80 people were evacuated from their homes.
Falling wreckage from the intercepted missiles set fire to at least one apartment building, burned parked cars and left craters in streets and a small park. Some streets were littered with debris, including glass from shattered windows.
The attack came after repeated Ukraine aerial attacks in recent days on Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine. On Thursday, five people were injured in the latest attack on the Belgorod region, which damaged homes and the city sports stadium, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Russia´s Ministry of Defense said it stopped 10 rockets over the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened Wednesday to “respond in kind” to the attacks.
Ukrainian explosives technicians load a fragment of a missile onto a special demining armoured truck outside of five-storey residential building after a missile attack, in Kyiv on March 21, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Ukrainian air defence forces shot down “about three dozen enemy missiles, including ballistic missiles, over Kyiv and in the vicinity of the capital,” the city’s military administration said on Telegram, adding that the raid had lasted three hours. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP) (Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukrainian rescuers stand outside of a five-storey residential building after a missile attack, in Kyiv on March 21, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Ukrainian air defence forces shot down “about three dozen enemy missiles, including ballistic missiles, over Kyiv and in the vicinity of the capital,” the city’s military administration said on Telegram, adding that the raid had lasted three hours. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP) (Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
At an event in the Kremlin, Putin said Russia “can respond in the same way regarding civilian infrastructure and all other objects of this kind that the enemy attacks. We have our own views on this matter and our own plans. We will follow what we have outlined.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the country´s Western partners to send more air defense systems so they can be distributed across the country where missile strikes have become more common.
“Every day, every night such … terror happens,” he said on Telegram after Thursday´s attack on Kyiv. “World unity is capable to stop it by helping us with more air defense systems.”
Zelenskyy said Russia doesn´t have missiles that can evade U.S.-made Patriots and other advanced air defense weapons.
Russia has largely turned its attention to other Ukrainian cities, targeting them with drones and ballistic missiles.
On Wednesday, Russian ballistic missiles killed five people and injured nine in the eastern Kharkiv region, and strike on southern Odesa last week killed 21.