A series of explosions rocked Kyiv and minutes later, air raid sirens began to sound, indicating an apparent missile attack on the Ukrainian capital on Saturday.Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Telegram that critical infrastructure in Kyiv had been targeted.
According to Kyiv’s city military administration, an unidentified infrastructure object was hit in the city, and emergency services were on the scene.
According to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, explosions were heard in the city’s Dniprovskyi district. Klitschko also claimed that missile fragments fell on a non-residential area in the Holosiivskyi district, causing a fire in a building. So far, no fatalities have been reported.
It was unclear whether several Kyiv facilities were targeted or just the one that was reported hit. Since New Year’s Eve, the Ukrainian capital has not been attacked with missiles.
According to Tymoshenko, a residential building in the outlying Kyiv region was hit, and windows in nearby houses were blown out.
According to regional Gov Oleksii Kuleba, 18 private houses were damaged in the region. “There are damaged roofs and windows,” but no casualties, according to Kuleba’s Telegram post. He also stated that a fire at a “critical infrastructure facility” in the area had been extinguished.
Earlier on Saturday, two Russian missiles struck Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to the governor of the Kharkiv region.
According to Oleh Syniehubov, Russian forces launched two S-300 missiles at Kharkiv’s industrial district. The strikes were aimed at “energy and industrial objects in Kharkiv and the (outlying) region,” according to Syniehubov. There were no reported casualties, but emergency power outages in the city and other settlements in the region were possible, according to the official.
The attacks come amid conflicting reports about the fate of Soledar, a fiercely contested salt mining town in Ukraine’s troubled east. Russia claims to have captured the town, which would be a rare victory for the Kremlin after a string of humiliating defeats on the battlefield.
Ukrainian authorities, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, maintain that the fight for Soledar will continue.
The battle for the town and the nearby city of Bakhmut has been painted by Moscow as critical to capturing the eastern region of the Donbas, which includes the partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as a way to grind down the best Ukrainian forces and prevent them from launching counterattacks elsewhere.
However, Ukraine claims that its fierce defence of eastern strongholds has helped tie up Russian forces. According to Western officials and analysts, the significance of the two towns is symbolic rather than strategic.
Also read:PM Modi stated during the Voice of the Global South Summit, “We all agree on the importance of South-South Cooperation.”
