Russian missiles targeted Kiev for the first time in three weeks, as G7 leaders assembled in Germany with the invasion at the top of their agenda.
A nine-story apartment building and the grounds of a kindergarten were attacked, and officials reported that one person was murdered and six others were injured.
A nine-story apartment building and the grounds of a kindergarten were attacked, and officials reported that one person was murdered and six others were injured.
Earlier, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kiev, stated that four people were brought to the hospital and a seven-year-old girl was rescued from the rubble.
He suggested that the bombings may have been a “symbolic attack” by Moscow in advance of the NATO conference in Madrid this week.
Andriy Yermak, the president’s chief of staff, stated: “Again, the Russians attacked Kiev. A kindergarten and an apartment complex were hit by missiles.”
The residential building in the central Shevchenkivskiy neighborhood was left smoldering with a crater in its roof after firefighters extinguished a fire there, and debris was scattered over parked automobiles outside.
At a different location 400 meters distant, there was a massive bomb crater near a private kindergarten playground with shattered windows. The area’s storage garages were completely damaged.
Referring to the Russian strikes, US Vice President Joe Biden stated, “it’s more of their brutality” while attending a conference in Bavaria with the leaders of seven leading nations.
Boris Johnson stated that the West must maintain a united front against Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.
“The price of capitulating, the price of allowing Putin to triumph, to sever vast portions of Ukraine, and to continue his conquest campaign, would be much, much greater,” the prime minister told reporters.
There were up to four explosions heard in the center of Kiev. Mykola Povoroznyk, the deputy mayor of Kiev, stated that explosions heard later in other sections of the city were air defenses destroying other incoming missiles.
Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker, tweeted on the Telegram messaging service, “according to preliminary data, 14 missiles were launched against the Kiev region and the city of Kiev.”
Yuriy Ignat, a spokesman for the air force, stated that the missiles were Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles launched from aircraft over the Caspian Sea.
The capital was last struck by Russian warplanes on June 5.
Oleksandr Skichko, a former regional governor, stated via Telegram that explosions were also heard in the central city of Cherkasy. He did not provide further information.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February in what Mr. Putin termed a unique military operation to safeguard Russian security and de-Nazify Ukraine, Cherkasy has mainly escaped bombardment.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense stated that it had employed high-precision weaponry to strike Ukrainian army training centers in the areas of Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, and Lviv, an apparent allusion to Saturday’s attacks reported by Ukraine.
In the meantime, Russian soldiers have been attempting to seize the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern region of Luhansk.
They have already seized complete control of Severodonetsk and the chemical factory where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians had taken refuge.
Governor of the Luhansk area, which contains Severodonetsk, Serhiy Haidai, reported that Russia was conducting extensive airstrikes on the neighboring city of Lysychansk, destroying its television tower and severely damaging a road bridge.
He posted on Facebook, “There is a great deal of wreckage – Lysychansk is virtually unrecognizable.”
