KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia fired 31 ballistic and cruise missiles toward Kiev early Thursday, officials said, in the first attack on the Ukrainian capital in 44 days. Air defense forces shot down all the incoming missiles, but said 13 people, including children, were injured by falling debris.
At around 5 a.m., Kiev residents were woken up by loud explosions as the missiles arrived from different directions almost simultaneously, said Serhiy Popko, head of the Kiev City Hall.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles at the capital.
Kiev has better air defense than most regions of this large country. Missile interception rates are frequently high, and attacks on Russian capitals are far less successful than they were earlier in the war.
A police officer inspects a crater left by an explosion following a missile attack in Kiev, March 21, 2024, during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Anatoly Stepanov/AFP) (Photo by Anatoly Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)
KYIV, UKRAINE – MARCH 21: Craters are seen on the road after a missile attack in Kiev, Ukraine, on March 21, 2024. Russian forces fired 31 missiles at Kiev this morning, wounding at least 10 people, the first attack in weeks. (Photo by Adri Salido/Getty Images)
Kyiv city authorities said an 11-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man were hospitalized. Eight other people suffered minor injuries, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Ukraine’s emergency services said about 80 people had been evacuated from their homes.
Debris that fell from the intercepted missile set at least one apartment building on fire, burned parked cars and left craters in roads and small parks. Some streets were littered with broken windows and other debris.
The attack followed repeated airstrikes by Ukraine in recent days on Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine. Five people were injured and homes and the city’s sports stadium were damaged in recent attacks in the Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Thursday. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that 10 rockets had been stopped over the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday threatened a “similar response” to the attack.
A Ukrainian explosives technician loads missile fragments onto a special demining armored truck outside a five-story residential building after a missile attack in Kiev, March 21, 2024, during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The city’s junta announced on Telegram that Ukraine’s air defense forces had shot down “approximately 30 enemy missiles, including ballistic missiles, over Kiev and in the vicinity of the capital,” adding that the airstrike lasted three hours. (Photo by Sergei Supinski/AFP) (Photo by Sergei Supinski/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukrainian rescue workers stand outside a five-story house after a missile attack in Kiev, March 21, 2024, during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The city’s junta announced on Telegram that Ukraine’s air defense forces had shot down “approximately 30 enemy missiles, including ballistic missiles, over Kiev and in the vicinity of the capital,” adding that the airstrike lasted three hours. (Photo by Sergei Supinski/AFP) (Photo by Sergei Supinski/AFP via Getty Images)
Putin said at an event in the Kremlin that Russia “can respond in the same way with respect to civilian infrastructure and all these types of objects that our enemies attack.” We have our own views and our own plans on this matter. We’re going to follow what we’ve outlined. ”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on his country’s Western partners to send in more air defense systems so they can be deployed across the country, where missile attacks have become more common.
“Terrorism like this happens every day and every night,” he said on Telegram after Thursday’s Kiev attack. “World unity can stop it by supporting more air defense systems.”
President Zelenskiy said Russia does not have missiles that can evade the U.S.-made Patriot and other advanced air defenses.
Russia has mainly focused its attention on other cities in Ukraine, targeting them with drones and ballistic missiles.
On Wednesday, a Russian ballistic missile killed five people and wounded nine others in eastern Kharkiv, and last week’s attack on southern Odessa killed 21 people.
