Russia Launches ‘Exceptional’ Attack on Kyiv, Capital Rocked by Explosions as Air Defenses Intercept

Russia launched a massive overnight attack on Kyiv using drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles in a strike that Ukraine described as “exceptional in its density.”

Three people were injured when debris from an intercepted missile fell in the Solomyansky district of the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The city's zoo was also hit by debris.

Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said the attack – the eighth this month – was a “complex strike from different directions” that used the “maximum number of incoming missiles in the shortest period of time.”

Air raid sirens sounded in the capital just before 2:30 am. Kyiv Post reporters in the center of the city were woken by the sound of air defense rockets launching and then a series of exceptionally loud explosions as they intercepted the Russian missiles.

Julia Tymoshenko, who works for the Saint Javelin charity, recorded some of them in a post on Twitter.

According to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Russia launched a total of 18 missiles including six hypersonic “Kinzhal” missiles. All were shot down.

Unveiling the Kinzhal missile in 2018, President Putin described it as "an ideal weapon" and almost impossible to intercept.

Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Twitter on Tuesday morning: "Another unbelievable success for the Ukrainian Air Forces! Last night, our sky defenders shot down SIX russian hypersonic Kinzhal missiles and 12 other missiles."

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The uptick in deadly attacks is intended to destroy train facilities and "paralyse deliveries and movement of military cargo" ahead of a planned Russian offensive, the source said.

The statement came just over a week after Ukraine said it had downed its first Kinzhal hypersonic missile.

Falling debris was also reported in the Shevchenkivskyi, Svyatoshynskyi, Obolonskyi, and Darnytskyi districts of the capital though no casualties have been reported at this time.

Despite all the missiles being shot down, Russia insisted on Tuesday that all the targets assigned by its military in the overnight missile barrage had been hit.

The defence ministry in Moscow said long-range precision-strike missiles had targeted storage facilities hosting "ammunition, weapons and military equipment supplied by Western countries," adding that "all assigned targets have been hit".