The attack came just hours after Vladimir Putin’s annual end-of-year speech, in which the Russian president dismissed the idea of a temporary truce in Ukraine, claiming it would only benefit the Ukrainians.
A series of powerful explosions rocked Kyiv on Friday morning, causing widespread damage across multiple districts in Ukraine’s capital as air defences intercepted the incoming missiles, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
The strikes left debris in the Holosiivskyi, Solomianskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, and Dniprovskyi districts, causing fires on rooftops and damaging vehicles.
The Holosiivskyi district was the hardest hit, with missile debris damaging office buildings, gas pipelines, and civilian vehicles, local media wrote.
Kyiv’s Military Administration reported one fatality and three injuries in Holosiivskyi, while Mayor Klitschko later stated there were seven injuries across the city but made no mention of deaths.
The city’s authorities claim Russia used a combination of Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles and Iskander-M or KN-23 systems, signalling a rise in the sophistication of attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
The missile strikes followed an overnight drone assault on Kyiv, where all drones were reportedly intercepted by Ukrainian forces. However, a separate drone attack in the Boryspil district of Kyiv region ignited a large warehouse fire.
Meanwhile, heavy Russian artillery shelling in Kherson damaged apartment buildings, killing one person and injuring six. In Kryvyi Rih, five people were injured during a missile strike, which also damaged residential buildings according to Ukrainian authorities.
