Russia launches fresh rocket attacks on Kyiv for first time in three weeks

Russia has launched fresh attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv for the first time in weeks, as 14 missiles targeted residential buildings.

Emergency services were seen battling flames and rescuing civilians from the blasted out windows of burning apartments after large bangs shook the city at around 6.30am this morning.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were injured and a seven-year-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble.

He said: ‘We are doing everything we can to stop the fire and take people out of the destroyed buildings.

‘We hope nobody has died but the final information we will have in a couple of hours.’

Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian MP, said according to data 14 missiles were launched at the capital.

Before the attack, Kyiv had not faced an onslaught of Russian air strikes since June 5.

Mr Klitschko called the blasts an attempt to ‘intimidate’ the city ahead of G7 and NATO summits taking place this week. 

World leaders are currently gathering in Munich for G7, where the war in Ukraine is expected to dominate discussions.

Russia’s troops are predominantly focused on the east of the country, as they look to gain increased ground in the Luhansk area of Ukraine following the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the charred ruins of Sievierodonetsk.

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said late on Saturday Russian and Moscow-backed separatist forces now control Sievierodonetsk and the villages surrounding it.

He said the attempt by Ukrainian forces to turn the Azot plant into a ‘stubborn centre of resistance’ had been thwarted.

Moscow-backed separatists are now in control of the chemical plant which was the last Ukrainan holdout in the city.

But Russia has also launched other missile strikes across other parts of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s air command said Russia fired long-range Tu-22 bombers deployed from Belarus for the first time.

During a meeting between Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko discussions included Russia supplying Belarus with the Iskander-M missile system.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said the Russian bombers’ use of Belarusian airspace for the first time for Saturday’s attack was ‘directly connected to attempts by the Kremlin to drag Belarus into the war’.

Belarus hosts Russian military units and was used as a staging ground before Russia invaded Ukraine, but its own troops have not crossed the border.

Russia is now trying to blockade Lysychansk from the south, which would give its forces control of every major settlement in the province in a significant step towards the aim of capturing the entire Donbas.

Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the separatist forces, Andrei Marochko, as saying Russian troops and separatist fighters had entered Lysychansk and fighting was taking place in the heart of the city.

There was no immediate comment on the claim from the Ukrainian side.

Sievierodonetsk’s population has been cut from 100,000 to 10,000 since Russia’s bombardment.

Meanwhile, in other parts of Ukraine including in the south, along the Black Sea coast, nine missiles fired from Crimea hit the port city of Mykolaiv on Saturday, the Ukrainian military said.

In the north, about 20 missiles were fired from Belarus into the Chernihiv region.

Responding to the latest round of attacks, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia ‘felt compelled to stage such a missile show’.

He said the war was at a difficult stage, adding: ‘When we know that the enemy will not succeed, when we understand that we can defend our country, but we don’t know how long it will take, how many more attacks, losses and efforts there will be before we can see that victory is already on our horizon.’

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