KYIV, Ukraine – Russia fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv on Monday, sending panicked residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital following overnight strikes.AFP reporters saw people running for shelter in a metro station in central Kyiv as volleys of explosions were heard.
A witness video showed a group of schoolchildren screaming as they ran down the street.
Many residents have become used to ignoring air raid sirens, but the heavy barrage prompted a panicked reaction. City authorities said 41,000 people hid in the subway.
Down on the platform of the Khreshchatyk metro station, people waited and checked their mobile phones.
“I saw six, seven or eight… explosions in the sky. That’s why I came here with my work colleagues,” said Maksym, a plumber, sitting on the steps.
“I’m waiting for the air raid to end.”
“Everyone is used to the night [attacks] when we sleep at home. But the daytime is something new, it has not happened in a long time,” said Yevgeny, a 39-year-old programmer.
“They want to intimidate and scare us, so that we say this war must be stopped. That is what they are probably trying to achieve,” said Volodymyr, an entrepreneur.
City administration said air defences were at work during the raid, which was the 16th attack on Kyiv this month.
AFP journalists also saw missile fragments on the road in Kyiv’s northern Obolonskiy district.
“At first, they started shooting down missiles as usual. Then one of them fell on the road, as you can see, just the tail of it. Some people said it set a car on fire,” said Dmytro, a young man in a plaid shirt.
Kyiv had been relatively spared from attacks since early this year, but has faced almost nightly aerial raids in May.
Authorities said early Monday that Kyiv had repelled another large number of overnight air strikes, with no casualties.
Ukraine’s general staff said late Monday that 40 cruise missiles and 38 “attacking UAVs” had been launched, almost all of which were downed.
STRIKE ON WESTERN UKRAINE
Russia also shelled a small town in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one woman, said local authorities.
A 61-year-old man was also killed by shelling in southern Kherson region.
In the western region of Khmelnytsky, Russian forces struck a military facility overnight, officials said.
In a rare admission of damage to a military installation, they said “five aircraft have been put out of action.”
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had attacked Ukrainian airfields and “all the assigned targets have been destroyed”.
Across the border in Russia’s western Belgorod region authorities said Ukrainian shelling killed one person in Grafovka village.
The Belgorod region has seen nearly daily attacks in recent days and last week was the scene of a dramatic incursion from Ukraine.
“The man was doing housework when a shell flew into the courtyard of a residential building,” Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
“He died on the spot from his injuries.”