Russia launched a large-scale deadly attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early Tuesday, damaging residential buildings, authorities said, as part of a broad offensive on targets across Ukraine.
At least 17 people were killed in the overnight assault that Ukraine’s military said involved more than 600 drones and dozens of missiles, including advanced hypersonics.
Six people were killed in Kyiv and 11 in the central city of Dnipro, including two children, according to Ukrainian officials. More than 100 people were wounded across the country. Five medical facilities were damaged or destroyed, the Ukrainian health ministry said Tuesday.
Inthe capital,the attacks damaged several residential and commercial buildings, sparking fires and burning cars, authorities said.
Kyiv’s air defenses appeared to be less active during a ballistic missile strike around 7 a.m. local time, with CNN producers in the city center hearing ongoing explosions, but not the firing of counter-air systems. A strong smell of smoke permeated the air in the city on Tuesday morning.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko described the overnight assault as a “massive enemy attack.”
There are fears people remain trapped under the rubble of a multi-story apartment block in Podilsky district that partially collapsed after a “double tap” Russian strike, according to Klitschko.
Emergency responders at a property damaged in Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on June 2. State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Images from Ukraine’s State Emergency Services show a fire engulfing a badly-damaged house as firefighters doused the flames, and the windows and facade of what appears to be the front room of another debris-filled home completely blown away.
“Throughout the night, the enemy launched massive attacks on the Kyiv region using drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. Our peaceful towns and villages were once again under attack,” said Mykola Kalashnyk, the Kyiv regional governor.
At least 65 people were wounded across the city, Ukrainian officials said, in strikes that caused power outages and sent residents scrambling to shelters as air raid sirens sounded.
A suspected missile strike hit a 24-story residential building in Shevchenkivskyi district, sparking a fire, and a blaze broke out in a nine-story building in Podil after debris struck the roof, the mayor said. Elsewhere in the city, Russian strikes damaged a clinic and debris fell on the grounds of a kindergarten, Klitschko added. In Bucha, three homes, warehouse facilities and non-residential buildings were damaged, Kalashnyk said.
A residential building damaged in a Russian attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on June 2. State Emergency Service of Ukraine
An emergency worker surveys damage at a property struck during a large-scale attack on Kyiv on June 2. State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Russian attacks were also reported in Dnipro, where 37 people were wounded, and Kharkiv, where 14 were wounded including a child, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. A rescue operation is underway at the site of a four-story apartment building in Dnipro that authorities said was “effectively leveled,” as six people remain unaccounted for.
Among those killed in Dnipro was Maj. Anton Yarmolenko, deputy chief of the Fire and Rescue Unit, who was responding to a rescue call at the time, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs Ihor Klymenko said.
Altogether, Russia fired 656 drones and 73 missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to Ukrainian Air Force figures, which said the vast bulk of the drones and just over half of the missiles were shot down.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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