Black smoke billowed into the sky over Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts in the outskirts of kyiv. At least one person was hospitalized but no deaths were immediately reported, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.
A Russian missile flew “at a critical altitude” over a large nuclear power plant in the southern Mykolaiv region and was likely heading towards kyiv, state nuclear operator Energoatom said on Telegram.
The volley of missiles targeted the capital’s railway infrastructure, according to Serhiy Leshchenko, an assistant to President Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff.
The Russian Defense Minister said he fired rockets at kyiv from a long distance and destroyed T-72 tanks and armored vehicles that had been supplied to Ukraine by Eastern European countries and were located in a car repair building.
Ukrainian air defenses destroyed a cruise missile at around 6 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) after identifying incoming missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
These missiles are the first to hit the capital since late April, when a Radio Liberty producer was killed in a Russian missile strike that hit the building where she lived.
“According to preliminary data, the (Russians) launched missiles from Tu-95 planes from the Caspian Sea,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement.
Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called on the West to impose more sanctions on Russia to punish it for the strikes and supply more weapons to Ukraine.
“The Kremlin is resorting to new insidious attacks. Today’s missile strikes on Kyiv have only one goal – to kill as many people as possible,” he wrote in a tweet.
The mayor of the historic town of Brovary, located about 20 km (12 miles) from the center of kyiv, has urged people to stay inside their homes as there are reports of a sooty smell coming from smoke.
Despite continued Russian offensives in Ukraine and widespread destruction, life in kyiv has been relatively spared from attack in recent weeks, after Moscow turned the focus of its invasion to the east and south.
Air raid sirens regularly disrupt life in kyiv, but there have been no major strikes on the city for several weeks.
The Darnytskyi district, on the left bank of the Dnipro river, extends from the fringes of kyiv to the banks of the river, while the Dniprovskyi area, to the north of the city, lies along the river.
Oleksandr Honcharenko, mayor of Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region, reported nightly strikes on the city which caused heavy damage but no casualties.
On Saturday, Ukrainian officials said the country’s troops had recaptured part of the besieged city of Sievierodonetsk in a counteroffensive against Russia.