Online Desk: At least two people have been killed and several others injured in a Russian drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital Kiev.
The news agency AFP reported this on Thursday, citing Ukrainian authorities.
It was Moscow’s second major attack on Ukraine in as many days.
The attack came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was preparing to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Malaysia.
AFP journalists in Kiev heard loud explosions in the city throughout the night and saw lights streaking across the sky.
The head of the Kiev region’s military administration, Mykola Kalashnikov, wrote in a telegram that the enemy’s nighttime attack on the Kiev region lasted about 10 hours.
The head of the capital’s military administration, Timur Tkachenko, said two people had been killed in the Russian attack.
He had previously said that 13 people had been injured in the attack.
An AFP correspondent reported that several residents of the capital had taken shelter overnight at a central metro station. They slept on mats, pacified pets and waited for an attack on camping furniture.
The military administration of the city of Kiev had warned of a “threat of the enemy using ballistic weapons” and the Ukrainian air force said a “group of missiles” had approached Kiev from the east.
Ukraine’s air alert was lifted on Thursday morning.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said that falling debris had set buildings on fire in the capital’s Solomiansky and Shevchenkivskyi districts.
In another district, Dernitsky, a garage and a gas station were set on fire by falling drone debris.
According to the regional military administration, three people were injured in the Russian attack in southern Kherson.
The latest Russian attack comes a day after Moscow carried out its largest missile and drone strikes in more than three years of war, killing at least one civilian in Ukraine.
The record Russian strikes are a sign of a growing trend of attacks that have strained Ukraine’s air defenses.
Two rounds of direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives this year have led to a prisoner exchange. But there has been no progress on securing a ceasefire proposed by the United States and Ukraine.
Rubio, Washington’s top diplomat, will meet with Russia’s foreign minister on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur, a senior State Department official said.
