Kyiv came under heavy Russian bombardment on Thursday morning. “Rocket fragments fell on a kindergarten in Sviatoshynskyi district,” said Vitali Klitschko, mayor of the Ukrainian capital, in a series of updates on Telegram. An apartment building and cars in other areas were on fire, he added, with evacuations under way. Ten people had been injured, Klitschko said, among them an 11-year-old girl.
Ukraine’s air force commander, Mykola Oleschuk, said all 31 Russian missiles targeting Kyiv were shot down, comprising two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles. Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said: “After a pause of 44 days, the enemy launched another missile attack on Kyiv.” Popko said the Russians used strategic bombers and also launched some missiles from Russian territory; while after complicated manoeuvres in neighbouring regions, the missiles targeted the city from different directions. Air alerts lasted for nearly three hours.
