Kyiv, July 26: Russian ballistic missiles struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early on Sunday, setting off fires and wounding at least three civilians, while attacks on other parts of the country later killed at least two people, local officials said.
The strikes came as Ukraine’s successful drone attacks have stalled the Russian army’s advances in an expanded campaign inside Russia that has been causing fuel shortages and piling pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
In Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, Kremlin-installed authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike had killed four civilians in the city of Horlivka.
According to Ivan Prikhodko, the city’s Russian-appointed mayor, the city had been under fire since the early hours of Sunday.
According to Russia’s defence ministry, Russian forces overnight struck down 133 Ukrainian drones over Russia, the Black Sea and Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Blasts rocked Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday, with falling debris sparking a blaze in a tower block near the historic centre, according to mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Elsewhere in the city, falling debris set fire to buildings, cars and car parks, Klitschko added.
He said three people had been wounded, with one needing hospital treatment.
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy warned in his evening address on Friday that intelligence assessments indicated that Russia was preparing missiles for a large attack, saying there were indications that this could happen in the next 48 hours.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Sunday that its latest attack on Kyiv had struck sites linked to drone production.
Also on Sunday, a drone strike on Kharkiv – Ukraine’s second-largest city in the east – killed one person and wounded at least six others, including two children, mayor Igor Terekhov reported.
In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian glide bomb killed one man and wounded at least six other people, according to mayor Ivan Fedorov.
Both Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia have been frequent targets for Russian attacks, with Zaporizhzhia suffering heavy bombardment in recent months.
On Friday, a major Russian strike near Kyiv killed at least 10 people and wounded around 100 others, part of a cycle of tit-for-tat attacks that dims the potential of reaching a diplomatic end to Russia’s more than
4-year-old invasion of its neighbour.(AP)
