KYIV (Reuters) – Russian warplanes fired 19 long-range missiles at targets in Ukraine on Friday morning, killing one civilian in a central region, wounding four more and damaging an industrial facility, Kyiv officials said.
The strike was the first big salvo of missiles Russia has fired at targets, including the Ukrainian capital, in weeks. Russia has mainly been using drones for its overnight attacks in recent weeks.
“Unfortunately, one person is dead. Preliminarily, four people are wounded. They are all in hospital. Two people are in severe condition,” Dnipropetrovsk’s regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on the Telegram messaging app.
Air defences shot down 14 incoming missiles over the region outside Kyiv and the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments.
The strike damaged an unnamed industrial facility and more than a dozen homes in the towns of Pavlohrad and Ternivka and the village of Yuryivska, Lysak said.
Russia used seven Tu-95 bombers to launch missiles at different regions across the country, the air force said in a statement.
Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said the Ukrainian capital had been targeted in the attack but that all the missiles were downed by air defences as they approached.
Missile debris damaged privately-held homes in several settlements in Kyiv region, smashing windows and destroying some walls, governor Ruslan Kravchenko said.
Air alerts were announced at about 0700 a.m. (0500 GMT) and lasted for over 2 hours.
Officials reported an earlier overnight missile attack that struck the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said rescuers and police were clearing rubble after the attack damaged a five-story residential building, at least seven residential homes and 20 cars.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Christina Fincher)
