Witali Klitschko urged people in Kiew to stay in shelters overnight as Russia hit the city again with ballistic missiles. Air raid alarms sounded in the Ukrainian capital as officials warned of a ballistic missile threat.
Klitschko’s warning came as fires broke out in two city districts and three people were hurt in Kiew. Tymur Tkatschenko said three more people were injured in drone attacks around the city, including a child, showing how the night strike spread beyond the capital itself.
The attack on Kiew was only one part of a wider exchange. Wolodymyr Selenskyj said two people were killed in Krywyj Rih, one person died in Sumy, and Ukrainian authorities said Russian missiles also killed two people in the region of Saporischschja. The Ukrainian air force said rockets, glide bombs and drones were also used against other parts of the country.
Both sides then described their own large attack figures, but those claims could not be checked independently. Sergej Sobjanin said Ukraine attacked the region of the Russian capital with around 600 drones overnight, while 201 drones were destroyed in the region of Moskau. He said three people were injured, and Andrej Worobjow said a 83-year-old man was killed when a drone fell on his property. In Gebiet Rostow am Don, at least three people died in a Ukrainian drone attack, and three people were injured in Podolsk.
The fighting underlines how thin the air defense shield has become after years of war. The text says Ukrainian forces do not have enough interceptor missiles, and that the Patriot systems made in the USA are seen as the most effective defense against ballistic rockets. That shortage has lasted long enough that a night attack on Kiew now brings the same urgent order from Klitschko: get underground first, count the damage later.
