Russia used its powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile for a third time in Ukraine as part of a massive attack on Kyiv and its surrounding region that killed at least four people and injured about 100. The assault hit a water supply facility, burned down a market and damaged dozens of residential buildings and several schools.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia hit the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region with the missile. He described a heavy Russian assault that involved 600 drones and 90 missiles of various kinds, 36 of which were ballistic. “Unfortunately, not all of the ballistic missiles were intercepted – the largest number of hits was in Kyiv. Kyiv was the primary target of this Russian attack,” he wrote on X.
Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, said two people had been killed in the capital and 56 wounded, while the head of the surrounding Kyiv region said two people had also been killed there, and nine wounded, based on preliminary estimates. Klitschko said damage had been recorded in every district of Kyiv, adding that an attack on a school had started a fire and another on a business centre led to people being trapped in a shelter.
Ukraine’s National Art Museum, housing one of the country’s largest and most important collections, was also damaged in the blast, the culture ministry said. The foreign ministry was damaged for the first time since the second world war, according to foreign minister Andrii Sybiha. The historic building had been lightly damaged as a result of nearby explosions, he said. Ukraine’s government headquarters were also damaged, with windows blown out, but no one injured, said Yulia Svyrydenko, the prime minister.
Russia’s defence ministry confirmed the use of the Oreshnik, which is capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads, making it the third time the weapon has been used in the conflict. It said the attack was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on “civilian facilities on Russian territory”. The intense barrage on Kyiv came after President Vladimir Putin vowed revenge on Ukraine, having accused its forces of a deadly drone attack on a student dormitory in Luhansk, a Russian-controlled region in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine denied the accusations and said it had struck an oil depot used by the Russian military.
