Ukraine: four killed in night-time Russian attack on central Kyiv

Ukrainian military destroys 24 Russian drones and two ballistic missiles during overnight air strike targeting various parts of country

Ukraine: emergency personnel following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv which killed at least four. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Ukraine: emergency personnel following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv which killed at least four. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with a barrage of drones and missiles in the early morning on Saturday, leaving at least four people dead.

Russia launched 39 Shahed drones, other simulator drones and four ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s air force said.

Ukrainian air defence forces shot down two missiles and 24 drones. A further 14 drone simulators were lost in location, the statement said.

The four were killed after a shot-down missile fell over the Shevchenkivskyi district, said Kyiv city military administration head Timur Tkachenko.

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He said falling debris had also hit the Holosiivskyi district on the west bank of the Dnipro river that runs through the capital and in the Desnyanskyi district on the opposite bank.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that in the Shevchenkivskyi district, windows were broken and there was smoke at the entrance of a residential building, adding that a water supply pipeline was also damaged.

A car sits parked in water overflowing on to the street due to a damaged water pipeline following a rocket attack in Kyiv. Photograph: Tetiana Dzhafarova/Getty Images/AFP
A car sits parked in water overflowing on to the street due to a damaged water pipeline following a rocket attack in Kyiv. Photograph: Tetiana Dzhafarova/Getty Images/AFP

Journalists at the scene saw a man lying dead amid the debris in a pool of blood.

Water flooded the streets as firefighters put out the blaze from the attack.

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Mr Klitschko also said the Lukyanivska metro station was shut down after the attacks damaged its glass entrance.

Drones and missiles were shot down across Ukraine, in the Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Donetsk regions. – AP/Reuters