Russia mounted an intense and sustained barrage of Kyiv overnight, with missiles and drones targeting the Ukrainian capital where there was a succession of large explosions, Reuters reporters in the city said.
By daybreak on Friday, authorities in Kyiv reported that four people were killed and 20 people had been wounded, of whom 16 had been hospitalised.
“Four people have been confirmed dead in the capital. Search and rescue operations are ongoing at several locations,” mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
Operation of the city’s metro transport system was disrupted because a Russian strike had hit and damaged a train between stations, the city’s military administration said.
The air attack also triggered fires in residential buildings in different parts of the city, authorities said.
The attack came after Russia vowed to take revenge on Ukraine after a drone attack on the country’s bomber fleet.
Earlier in the night, as the attacks came in, Reuters reporters could hear the sound of Russian kamikaze drones buzzing in the sky, accompanied by the sounds of outgoing fire from Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire.
Reuters witnesses reported a series of booming explosions powerful enough to rattle windows far from the impact site, and at least one large fire at the site of a drone hit.
Ukraine’s air force said the city had been targeted with drones and Kalibr cruise missiles.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said drones had struck the upper floors of a high-rise apartment building and started a fire in Darnytskyi district on the east side of the city, where he said emergency power cuts were possible.
One unofficial Telegram channel said a shopping centre in the area was ablaze.
Tkachenko said a fire had also broken out in an apartment building in a western district. He said drone fragments had been spotted in three districts.
In one of the most audacious attacks of the war between Ukraine and Russia, Ukrainian spies last weekend destroyed some of Russia’s strategic bomber aircraft on the ground using quadrocopter drones hidden in wooden sheds.
US President Donald Trump said after a phone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that the Kremlin was planning an unspecified response to the Ukrainian attack on Russian airbases.
On Thursday, Trump said it may be better to let Ukraine and Russia “fight for a while” rather than pursue peace immediately.
Trump voiced doubts about the potential success of peace talks, saying “sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart”.
The US president said he had told Putin that the two countries were like “two young children fighting like crazy in a park” when the two spoke by phone on Wednesday.
