RUSSIA pounded Kyiv with a massive bombardment that killed four people, authorities said Sunday, with Moscow unleashing its nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile in one of the largest barrages in the more than four-year-long war.
Multiple rounds of loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital throughout the early hours of the morning, AFP journalists reported, as residents took shelter in underground stations.
Daytime scenes across the capital showed rescue workers extinguishing fires and sifting through debris of heavily damaged buildings houses, shopping centres, museums, theatres, schools and universities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier threatened retaliation for Ukrainian strikes in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine that killed 21 people in a vocational school.
Sofia Melnychenko, 21, thought she was safe in the subway, “but then there were three loud explosions, and after the fourth one the ceiling in the metro started crumbling,” she told AFP.
“There was complete chaos. Children started screaming, people were panicking,” she added.
The Ukrainian air force said the raid involved 600 drones and 90 missiles, of which 549 drones and 55 missiles were intercepted.
Kyiv has been grappling with an acute air defence missile deficit since the US-Israeli air campaign against Iran drove up demand for US-made Patriot rounds.
European leaders reacted by saying the salvo showed Russia’s desperation.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the strikes signalled “the dead end of Russia’s war of aggression”, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the use of Oreshnik a “reckless escalation”.
“Three Russian missiles against a water supply facility, a market burnt down, dozens of residential buildings damaged, several ordinary schools, and he launched his ‘Oreshnik’ against Bila Tserkva (southwest of Kyiv),” he said, referring to the Russian president.
Russia’s army confirmed it had launched the Oreshnik at Ukraine, for the third time in the war, saying it was “in response to Ukraine’s terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure on Russian territory”.
It has denied targeting civilians and said it had struck command posts of the Ukrainian army and intelligence.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were killed in the capital and dozens wounded, while the head of the surrounding Kyiv region said two people were also killed there.
Klitschko said damage had been recorded in every district of Kyiv, with strikes causing fires at schools and wreaking havoc on popular markets, malls and museums.