Russia strikes Kyiv with massive missile and drone attack, killing one

KYIV – Russia struck Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on May 24 with a massive wave of missiles and drones that damaged residential buildings and schools, killing at least one person, officials said.

Explosions reverberated through the city shortly after 1am local time (6am Singapore time), after Ukraine’s air force had warned on its Telegram channel that Russia might launch an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile.

Ukraine’s air force did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether an Oreshnik missile hit any target during the attack.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that one person was killed after a nine-story residential building in the capital’s central district of Shevchenko was hit. Emergency services were on site to extinguish the blaze, he said.

In the same neighbourhood, several people were trapped inside an air raid shelter at a school after a strike blocked its entrance with debris, Mr Klitschko said. More people were believed to be stuck inside a shelter at a business centre in Shevchenko, the head of the city’s military administration said.

According to the city military administration, 20 people were injured in the overnight attack.

Three more people were injured in the broader Kyiv region, according to the governor, Mr Mykola Kalashnyk.

On May 23, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russia was preparing a strike against Ukraine using the Oreshnik missile, citing intelligence from Ukraine, the US and Europe.

Russia has already attacked Ukraine twice with the Oreshnik, a missile President Vladimir Putin has boasted is impossible to intercept because of its reported velocity of more than 10 times the speed of sound.

Mr Zelensky’s warning came after Mr Putin ordered his military to prepare options for retaliation against Ukraine for a drone strike on a student dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine on May 22.

Ukraine’s military denied the accusations and said it had targeted a Russian drone command unit. REUTERS