Russia launches ballistic missile attack on Kyiv, wounding civilians, as Ukraine marks four years since the invasion began.
KYIV: Explosions rocked Ukraine’s capital early on Sunday with officials warning of a ballistic missile attack. The strikes came just two days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
AFP journalists heard a series of blasts starting around 4:00 am local time. The air force later widened an air raid alert nationwide citing the missile threat.
“The enemy is attacking the capital with ballistic weapons,” said the head of Kyiv’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, on Telegram. He urged residents to remain in shelters.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a woman and a child were wounded and rushed to hospitals from the suburbs. Tkachenko added the attacks caused a fire on the roof of a residential building.
The capital, regularly targeted since the war began, has faced intensified overnight strikes in recent weeks. Moscow has focused its winter assaults on Ukrainian energy and military infrastructure.
The bombardment prompted heightened vigilance across Ukraine. Poland’s Operational Command said it scrambled jets after detecting Russian long-range aviation conducting strikes.
It also followed deadly blasts hours earlier in the western city of Lviv near the Polish border. Explosions ripped through a central shopping street around midnight, killing a policewoman and injuring 15 people.
“This is clearly an act of terrorism,” said Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi, offering no details on perpetrators.
Ukraine marks four years since Russia’s assault on February 24, 2022. The war has shattered towns, uprooted millions and killed large numbers on both sides.
Moscow occupies close to a fifth of Ukrainian territory and continues to grind forward in the eastern Donbas region. This persists despite heavy losses and repeated Ukrainian strikes on Russian logistics.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told AFP on Friday that Ukraine was “definitely not losing” the war. He said victory remained the goal.
Zelensky stated Ukrainian forces had clawed back about 300 square kilometres of territory in recent counter-attacks. These gains, which AFP could not immediately verify, would be Kyiv’s most significant since 2023.
The president linked the push to sweeping outages of Starlink internet terminals at the front. Owner Elon Musk shut them down following a plea from Kyiv, according to Zelensky.
The United States is pushing both sides to end the war, brokering several rounds of talks recently without a clear breakthrough. Zelensky, under pressure from Washington to consider concessions, said he planned consultations with European leaders.
He also expressed a desire for deeper involvement from Middle Eastern states and Turkey in the coming days.
The Sun Malaysia
