Three killed in Russian missile strike on Kyiv

Kremlin-Berlin tensions escalate

KYIV: Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv early yesterday, killing at least three people including a child and bringing fresh terror to the city after a week of strikes.

Moscow’s forces have recently launched a series of aerial assaults on the Ukrainian capital, including an unusual daytime attack on Monday that sent residents running for shelter.

Yesterday’s attack began at around 3am local time when cruise and ballistic missiles were fired on the city, killing three people and injuring 12 others, officials said.

“In the Desnyanskyi district: three people died, including one child (born in 2012) and 10 people were injured, including one child,” the Kyiv City Military Administration wrote on Telegram.

“In the Dniprovskyi district: two people were injured.”

Previous official reports had said two children were killed in the strikes.

In Russia’s western Belgorod region, at least two people were wounded yesterday morning in an attack on the town of Shebekino blamed on Ukrainian troops, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

“This night is tense for Shebekino again. Ukrainian troops were shelling the city for an hour,” he said.

Mr Gladkov previously reported shelling in the same town that injured four people.

On Tuesday, one person was killed and two others were wounded in a strike on a centre for displaced people in the region. Several oil depots have also been hit in recent weeks.

The attacks have come as Kyiv says it is preparing for a major offensive against Moscow’s forces.

‘ALARMING SITUATION’

More than a year since its Ukraine invasion, Russia has suffered stepped-up attacks on its soil, including a drone attack on Moscow Tuesday.

“The situation is quite alarming,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russia said Wednesday it was evacuating hundreds of children from villages due to the intensifying attacks.

The first 300 evacuated children would be taken to Voronezh, a city about 250 kilometres further into Russia, Governor Gladkov said. Over 1,000 more children would be moved to other provinces in the coming days, he added.

A correspondent for state-run agency RIA Novosti working near Voronezh said buses had arrived with about 150 people on board.

MOSCOW DRONE ATTACK

The Kremlin has accused Ukraine — and its Western backers — of being behind the increasing number of reported attacks.

On Tuesday, the foreign ministry said the West was “pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards increasingly reckless acts” after a drone attack on residential areas of Moscow.

At least three buildings were lightly damaged, including two high-rise residential buildings in Moscow’s affluent southwest.

Ukraine, which has seen almost nightly attacks on its capital, denied any “direct involvement”.

Tensions between Russia and the West escalated further Wednesday, when Germany announced it would drastically reduce Moscow’s diplomatic presence on its soil in reply to a similar move from the Kremlin.

Berlin said it had ordered four of Russia’s five consulates in Germany to close. The move comes after Moscow put a limit of 350 on the number of German government personnel allowed in Russia, a decision that Berlin says would force hundreds of civil servants and local employees to leave the country. Moscow called Germany’s decision “ill-thought-out” and vowed a response.