Russia-Ukraine War: Dozens injured in missile strikes on Kyiv

Police officers stand next to a destroyed car and a damaged residential building following a missile strike in Kyiv on December 13, 2023, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by SERGEI CHUZAVKOV / AFP)

Debris from Russian missiles shot down by Ukrainian air defences damaged a hospital and residential building in the capital on Wednesday, injuring at least 50 people, city authorities said.

The attack happened as President Volodymyr Zelensky was outside the country on a visit to Washington, where President Joe Biden warned that Russia was banking on the United States abandoning Ukraine.

It marks one of the biggest numbers of injured people in the capital in months.

Sergiy Popko, head of the city’s military administration, said there were 51 people injured, including six children.

He said there were reports of a dozen cases of falling missile debris, including from the Desnyansky district where 17 residents, including seven children, were evacuated from a building on fire.

The Ukrainian air force said that Russia launched an assault at 3:00 am (0100 GMT) and sent ten missiles towards Kyiv which were shot down.

An AFP journalist in the city heard several explosions and air raid sirens sounding.

City mayor Vitali Klitschko said an apartment building in the Dniprovsky district was damaged, forcing the evacuation of 15 residents, including four children and two disabled people.

He said “a missile fell on the territory of one of the capital’s hospitals” during the night attack, resulting in windows being “blown out in several buildings of the facility”.

One person was injured at the hospital, according to the mayor.

Police at the scene were “inspecting the crater on the territory of the medical facility”, he added.

– Second Kyiv strike –
Klitschko said missile debris that fell on a road damaged the district’s water supply network.

It is the second strike on Kyiv in a week.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said that “as a result of the air defence work on downing the missiles, debris fell in three left-bank districts of the city”.

“Same as on December 11, the enemy used ballistic weapons,” the Kyiv City Military Administration said, adding: “The enemy is intensifying the missile terror of Kyiv”.

Air defences downed a missile in Kyiv on September 21. The falling debris wounded seven people, including a child.

Speaking during a press conference alongside Zelensky at the White House on Tuesday, Biden said that the United States would “continue to supply Ukraine with critical weapons and equipment as long as we can.”