Ukrainian officials report Russian missile attack on Kyiv

On Saturday morning, a series of explosions rocked Kyiv, and minutes later, air raid sirens began to sound, indicating a suspected missile strike on the Ukrainian capital.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, warned on Telegram that critical infrastructure in Kyiv had been targeted.

An unidentified infrastructure object was hit in the city and emergency services were operating at the site of the strike, Kyiv’s city military administration said.

Explosions were heard in the Dniprovskyi neighborhood, a residential area on the Dnieper River’s left bank, according to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko. Klitschko further claimed that missile fragments fell on a non-residential sector in the Holosiivskyi district on the right bank, causing a fire in a structure. So far, no fatalities have been reported.

It was unclear whether numerous Kyiv facilities were targeted or just the one that was reported struck. Since New Year’s Eve, Jan. 1, the Ukrainian capital has not been hit with rockets.

In the outlying Kyiv region, a residential building in the village of Kopyliv was hit, and windows of the houses nearby were blown out, Tymoshenko said.

A total of 18 private houses were damaged in the region, according to regional Gov. Oleksii Kuleba. “There are damaged roofs and windows,” but no casualties, Kuleba said in a Telegram post. He added that a fire has been contained at a “critical infrastructure facility” in the region.

Earlier on Saturday, two Russian missiles hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, the governor of the Kharkiv region reported.

Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces fired two S-300 missiles at the industrial district of Kharkiv. The strikes targeted “energy and industrial objects of Kharkiv and the (outlying) region,” Syniehubov said. No casualties have been reported, but emergency power cuts in the city and other settlements of the region were possible, the official said.

The strikes came amid conflicting reports about the fate of Soledar, a fiercely contested salt mining town in Ukraine’s troubled east. Russia claims to have conquered the town, which would be a remarkable success for the Kremlin after a string of humiliating defeats on the battlefield.

Ukrainian authorities, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, maintain that the war for Soledar will continue.

The battle for the town and the nearby city of Bakhmut has been painted by Moscow as critical to capturing the eastern region of the Donbas, which includes the partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as a way to grind down the best Ukrainian forces and prevent them from launching counterattacks elsewhere.

However, Ukraine claims that its vigorous defense of eastern strongholds has helped tie up Russian soldiers. According to Western authorities and commentators, the significance of the two towns is symbolic rather than strategic.

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