Four killed in strike on central Kyiv, officials say

Four people have been killed in a Russian air strike on Kyiv overnight, Ukrainian officials have said.

A previous air raid had only just ended when another was activated at 06:00 (04:00 GMT), with authorities warning of a ballistic missile threat and urging residents to head for shelter.

Windows were shattered in the central Shevchenkivskyi district, including at a metro station, and a fire broke out in a non-residential building, the city’s Mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said. It is not clear what was targeted.

At the scene, there is a large crater in the road outside a business centre, a tall glass tower which is itself is very badly damaged, by a second missile or very large fragment.

The building was empty and had been new before 2022, with no-one having moved in.

Everything around it – including the local McDonald’s – has been similarly damaged.

A nearby dental clinic has been all but destroyed in the blast. Inside, staff are picking through the shattered glass and the mess, recovering what they can.

One woman was removing baubles from a plastic Christmas tree that was still standing.

“It’s happened before,” she told me, “but never as badly as this”.

Asked how she felt, she shrugged: “We got used to it.”

A young man, coming out of a nearby block of flats described the blasts early this morning.

“There were three explosions in a row, then a big fire glow in the sky – and the building shook. It was very loud,” Oleksandr said.

“I woke up immediately – I even felt the wall shaking. When the third strike came, it was pretty scary.”

On Saturday morning, emergency teams and police were everywhere and the main road had been cordoned off.

A man in military fatigues was collecting grey, twisted fragments of metal that appeared to be pieces of the missile.

Videos posted online showed a car in flames and water rushing down a flooded street in the immediate aftermath.

Air defences were in operation around the Ukrainian capital, Klitschko said.

It is the second fatal attack on Kyiv this month, following a strike on the city on New Year’s Day that left two people dead.

Meanwhile, in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the local authorities say six people were wounded in a Russian strike on Saturday. One woman is said to be in a serious condition.

These strikes are the latest in the war that began following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

They follow several Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory earlier in the week.