(Reuters) – A Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian capital injured at least 53 people and damaged buildings including a children’s hospital, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.
Ukrainian air defense systems shot down all the missiles, which targeted the capital around 0100 GMT, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on Telegram.
Missile debris injured people and caused damage in several areas of the city, officials said.
A children’s hospital suffered damage but, according to initial findings, no casualties were reported, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said on Telegram.
A residential building was also hit by debris, Vitali Klitschko said.
“Just yesterday (US) President Joe Biden and I agreed to work on increasing the number of air defense systems in Ukraine. The terrorist state demonstrated the importance of this decision,” Volodimir wrote Zelensky on Telegram, in reference to Russia.
Ukrainian National Police said 53 people, including six children, were injured in the attack. Eighteen people were hospitalized, she said in a social media post.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces identified the projectiles as Iskander-M ballistic missiles, as well as S-400: extremely fast missiles intended for air defense, but which were also used to strike targets terrestrial.
Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak praised Western-supplied defense systems and their operators.
“The effectiveness of Western weapons in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers cannot be doubted,” Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.
The Air Force said it also shot down all ten attack drones launched by Russia over the Odessa region in southern Ukraine.
(Reporting Sergiy Karazy and Valentyn Ogirenko, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; French version Camille Raynaud and Augustin Turpin)
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