A bomb squad member works next to a part of a missile after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, on March 21.Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters
Russia staged its largest missile attack in weeks on Kyiv and the surrounding region on Thursday, injuring at least 17 people and damaging schools, residential buildings and industrial facilities, officials said.
The air force said its defences shot down all the inbound missiles that were fired after a 44-day pause in such attacks on the Ukrainian capital. The damage appeared to have been caused by falling debris.
“Every day and every night there is such terror. The world’s unity can stop it when it helps us with air defence systems. Now we need this defence here in Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app.
City and regional officials said at least 13 people were injured in different parts of Kyiv and four more in the surrounding region. An 11-year-old girl was among four people taken to hospital, city officials said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kyiv last week of launching attacks to disrupt the Russian presidential election that handed him six more years in power. The Kremlin leader said Ukraine would be punished for that.
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and has launched thousands of missiles and drones on Ukrainian cities and villages in attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians.
The Ukrainian military has said Russia launched over 8,000 missiles on Ukraine in the first two years of the war.
Air raid sirens, which warn Ukrainians to take shelter, have sounded in the capital more than 1,020 times since the start of the war, the Ukrainian military said.
The capital was under an air raid alert for nearly three hours on Thursday morning.
“We feel hatred, terrible hatred. This is not fear, this is hatred. Towards Russia generally and everyone there in particular,” Kostyantyn, a Kyiv resident, told Reuters, standing outside a damaged residential house with his wife.
His wife Alisa added: “I send greetings to my parents in Crimea who voted … They went to the elections and voted for Putin. Mum, and Dad, thank you very much that my husband and I were almost killed today. Thank you.”
The Russian military used strategic bombers and also launched some missiles from its territory, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said. The missiles targeted Kyiv from different directions, he added.
Kyiv city officials said that several kindergartens and schools, residential buildings and industrial sites were damaged by debris from downed Russian missiles across the city.
In the region, at least 40 private houses and two multi-storey buildings were damaged, regional officials said.
“Russia spent $390 million on today’s missile attack on Kyiv,” Agiya Zagrebelska, head of sanctions policy at the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, told Reuters.
“This is less than 1% of the amount of taxes paid by international companies to the Russian budget since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.”
NATO Military Committee Chief Rob Bauer said during a visit to Kyiv on Thursday that Ukraine’s allies should not be too pessimistic about its ability to repel Russian troops and called for important aid to be delivered quickly.
Bauer led the first official visit to Kyiv by a NATO military delegation since February 2022 when Russia sent thousands of troops to Ukraine in a multi-pronged invasion.
Kyiv’s troops are facing shortages of ammunition shells and manpower, and are on the back foot in the east where Russian forces are inching forward.
“Ukraine needs even more support. And you need it now. Time in Ukraine is not measured in days, weeks or months. It is measured in human lives. In allied nations a week is a week. In Ukraine a week is a mother, a father, child, friend, lover, lost forever,” he told the Kyiv Security Forum.
He hailed Ukraine’s resilience and ability to adjust quickly while changing many aspects of modern warfare.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, writing on his website, said he had outlined to Bauer Ukraine’s most pressing needs in terms of weapons, ammunition and drones.
Zelensky said they discussed NATO’s role in co-ordinating support for Ukraine and developing its defence potential.
Ukraine, the president said, hoped for an assessment of Ukraine’s achievements at NATO’s forthcoming Washington summit that “will bring Ukraine closer to membership of the alliance.”
In his remarks to the security forum, Bauer also said lively debate around a bill on military mobilization now before Ukraine’s parliament was a normal part of a democratic society.
“It’s cumbersome in democracy, it’s cumbersome in a liberal economy to convince people,” he said. “I understand if you are impatient and say it’s not going fast enough … But this is unfortunately the way it is.
Bauer also met Ukraine’s Army Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi for talks on the current combat situation. Syrskyi said on Facebook that ammunition supplies and air defences were discussed.
With Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Bauer had a talk on prospects for combat training for Ukrainian servicemen and defence industries co-operation, the ministry said.
“While the world may have been overly optimistic in 2023 we should not make the same mistake becoming overly pessimistic in 2024,” Bauer told the forum, expressing confidence in Ukraine’s ability to succeed on the battlefield.