Russia attacks Kyiv with ballistic missiles, Ukraine says
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with drones and ballistic missiles before dawn Saturday, officials said, killing at least three people in central Kyiv as part of a broader assault that targeted towns and cities across the country.
Air-raid alarms sounded as emergency crews raced to search for the dead and wounded — a grimly familiar routine in a nation that has been battered by relentless Russian bombardments for nearly three years. Moscow called the attack retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, which in recent weeks appear to have intensified.
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The Ukrainian air force said that four ballistic missiles and 39 attack drones had been launched in the assault and that two of the ballistic missiles had been shot down in the Kyiv region. Although the city comes under drone attack almost nightly, ballistic missile launches targeting the capital are less frequent.
The predawn attack ruptured a water main near the city center, sending water cascading through the streets around the battered facade of the Lukianivska subway station. Nearby, smoke was rising from a charred van with at least two burned bodies inside.
When the waters subsided, a large crater was visible in the middle of the road as the sun rose. Yuriy Ihnat, an air force spokesperson, told the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet that one of the missiles had been shot down at a low altitude, which would help explain the extensive damage to the street and surrounding buildings.
Ukraine’s air-defense teams had spent hours tracking and trying to shoot down attack drones.