Russian missile and drone assault hits Ukrainian capital Kyiv, killing 9

By SAMYA KULLAB, Related Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with missiles and drones in a single day, killing a minimum of 9 individuals, together with a 6-year-old boy, and wounding 124 others, authorities mentioned Thursday.

Ten youngsters, the youngest being a 5-month-old woman, have been among the many wounded, Kyiv Metropolis Navy Administration head Tymur Tkachenko mentioned. A big a part of a nine-story residential constructing collapsed after it was struck, he mentioned.

Rescue groups have been on the scene looking for individuals trapped underneath the rubble.

Yana Zhabborova, 35, a resident of the broken constructing, woke as much as the sound of thundering explosions, which blew off the doorways and home windows of her residence.

“It’s simply stress and shock that there’s nothing left,” mentioned Zhabborova, a mom of a 5-month-old toddler and a 5-year-old baby.

Russia fired 309 Shahed and decoy drones, and eight Iskander-Okay cruise missiles in a single day, the Ukrainian air drive mentioned. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted and jammed 288 strike drones and three missiles. 5 missiles and 21 drones struck targets.

In the meantime, Russia’s Ministry of Protection mentioned Thursday that it had shot down 32 Ukrainian drones in a single day.

A drone attacked had sparked a blaze at an industrial web site in Russia’s Penza area, native Gov. Oleg Melnichenko mentioned. He didn’t instantly give additional particulars apart from to say that there have been no casualties.

Within the Volgograd area, some trains have been additionally halted after drone wreckage fell on native railway infrastructure, state rail operator Russian Railways mentioned.

Russia’s Protection Ministry additionally mentioned that its forces took full management of the strategically essential metropolis of Chasiv Yar in Ukraine’s japanese Donetsk area.

Russian and Ukrainian troops have battled for management of Chasiv Yar for almost 18 months. It features a hilltop from which troops can assault different key factors within the area that kind the spine of Ukraine’s japanese defenses.

Victor Trehubov, a Ukrainian army spokesperson, informed The Related Press that Russia’s declare was unfaithful.

“Only a fabrication, there wasn’t even a change within the state of affairs,” he mentioned.

A report on Thursday from Ukraine’s Military Basic Workers mentioned there have been seven clashes in Chasiv Yar up to now 24 hours. An connected map confirmed a lot of the city as being underneath Russian management.

DeepState, an open-source Ukrainian map extensively utilized by the army and analysts, confirmed early Thursday that neighborhoods to the south and west of Chasiv Yar remained as so-called grey zones, or uncontrolled by both facet.

The assault focused the Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Sumy, Mykolaiv areas, with Ukraine’s capital being the first goal, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.