Debris from Russian missiles shot down by Ukrainian air defenses hit a hospital and a residential building in Kiev on Wednesday, hurting at least 50 people, according to city officials.
The strike occurred while President Volodymyr Zelensky was on a visit to Washington, where President Joe Biden warned that Russia was counting on the US abandoning Ukraine.
It marks one of the biggest number of injured in the capital in months.
Sergiy Popko, the city’s military administration chief, reported 51 people were hurt, including six children.
He reported a dozen examples of falling missile debris, including one from the Desnyansky neighborhood, where 17 people, including seven children, were evacuated from a burning building.
According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia started an attack at 3:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) and launched ten missiles toward Kyiv, which were shot down.
An AFP correspondent in the city reported hearing numerous explosions and air raid sirens.
According to city mayor Vitali Klitschko, an apartment building in the Dniprovsky neighborhood was destroyed, causing 15 occupants, including four children and two disabled persons, to evacuate.
He said “a missile fell on the territory of one of the capital’s hospitals” during the night attack, resulting in windows being “blown out in several buildings of the facility”.
One person was injured at the hospital, according to the mayor.
Police at the scene were “inspecting the crater on the territory of the medical facility”, he added.
Second Kyiv strike
Klitschko said missile debris that fell on a road damaged the district’s water supply network.
It is the second strike on Kyiv in a week.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said that “as a result of the air defence work on downing the missiles, debris fell in three left-bank districts of the city”.
“Same as on December 11, the enemy used ballistic weapons,” the Kyiv City Military Administration said, adding: “The enemy is intensifying the missile terror of Kyiv”.
On September 21, air defenses in Kyiv shot down a missile. Seven individuals were injured by falling debris, including a kid.
During a press conference at the White House on Tuesday with Zelensky, Biden stated that the US would “continue to supply Ukraine with critical weapons and equipment for as long as we can.”
The Ukrainian president denied demands that he give up territory captured by Russia since its February 2022 incursion in order to bring a truce closer.
Odesa, in the country’s south, was also targeted by a Russian strike, according to mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov on his Telegram channel. He stated that persons were injured in the incident but did not provide any details.
According to the Ukrainian military, Iranian-built Shahed drones were shot down above the city.