Russia launches large missile and drone attack on Kyiv, killing four

Russia has hit Kyiv and its surrounding areas with a large missile and drone attack, killing four people and wounding more than 60, Ukrainian authorities say, after Moscow had threatened retaliation for strikes in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.

The explosions started just after 1am on Sunday (22:00 GMT on Saturday) after warnings by Ukraine’s air force that Russia ⁠might launch a hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile.

The attack included 600 drones and 90 air-, sea- and ground-launched missiles, according to Ukraine’s air force. Ukrainian air defences destroyed and jammed 549 drones and 55 missiles, and 19 missiles failed to reach targets, the air force said.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were killed in the capital and 56 wounded. The head of the surrounding Kyiv region said two people were also killed there and nine wounded.

Damage was recorded in 40 locations across several districts of the capital, including residential buildings, Kyiv military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said in a Telegram post.

“The capital has come under a mass ballistic missile attack,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had used the Oreshnik missile, which is difficult to intercept, in the bombardment.

Ukrainian authorities and the US embassy had earlier warned of an attack on Kyiv after Russia said it would “punish” those responsible for deadly strikes in a part of eastern Ukraine under its control, which Moscow said hit a college dormitory and killed at least 18 people.

Launched overnight on Thursday into Friday, the drone salvo – one of Ukraine’s deadliest such strikes in months – also wounded 42 people in Starobilsk in the occupied Luhansk region, trapping people beneath the debris.

In Kyiv, officials reported damage to offices, shops and the foyer of a metro station. In the city’s Independence Square, ⁠a post office was damaged.

Russia had already attacked Ukraine twice with the Oreshnik, a missile Russian President Vladimir Putin has boasted is impossible to intercept because of its reported velocity of more than 10 times the ‌speed of sound.