Russia launched 31 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv before dawn Thursday, marking the first attack on the Ukrainian capital in 44 days, according to officials.
All approaching missiles were shot down by air defenses, but falling wreckage injured 13 persons, including a child, according to reports.
Residents in Kyiv were woken up by loud explosions as missiles arrived from several directions at around the same time, according to Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Administration.
Kyiv has better air defenses than most regions of the large country.
The missile interception rate is frequently high, rendering Russian attacks on the capital significantly less successful than during the early days of the war.
An 11-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man were hospitalized in Kyiv, the city administration said. Eight other people sustained light injuries, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Ukraine’s Emergency Service said around 80 people were evacuated from their homes.
The attack occurred hours after a visit to Kyiv by President Joe Biden’s top foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, and came after repeated Ukraine aerial attacks in recent days on Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine.
On Thursday, five people were injured in the latest attack on the Belgorod region, which damaged homes and the city sports stadium, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it stopped 10 rockets over the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened Wednesday to “respond in kind” to the attacks.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the country’s Western partners to send more air defense systems so they can be distributed across the country where missile strikes have become more common.
Zelenskyy said Russia doesn’t have missiles that can evade U.S.-made Patriots and other advanced air defense weapons.
