Russia Attacks Kyiv With Ballistic Missiles

Russia targeted the Ukrainian capital and other cities across the country with a barrage of drones and ballistic missiles before dawn on Saturday, killing at least four people and injuring at least a dozen more, Ukrainian officials said.

Air-raid alarms were still sounding as emergency crews raced to search for dead and wounded — a grimly familiar routine in a nation that has been battered by relentless Russian bombardments for nearly three years.

Ukraine’s Air Force said four ballistic missiles and 39 attack drones were used in the assault, adding that two ballistic missiles were shot down in the region of Kyiv, the capital.

In Kyiv, the attack ruptured a water main near the city center, sending water cascading through the streets around the battered facade of the Lukyanivska metro station. Nearby was a charred van, with smoke still rising from it and two burned corpses inside.

As a blaze burned deep inside an industrial building across the street, some firefighters were trying to drag debris away from the front of a heavily damaged McDonald’s. Others were concentrating on the huge chunks of glass, debris and insulation covering the sidewalk near the metro station — typically a place residents seek safety during attacks.

As investigators walked up and down the street, reaching into the flowing water to look for pieces of shrapnel, local shopkeepers tried to get through a police cordon.

“It’s very frightening because this place keeps getting hit again and again. Some things are intercepted, but some always get through. It’s always very scary, especially since my husband has a shop here,” said Yana, 30, who would give only her first name. “It’s just terrifying. There’s never any peace. We came to check if everything was intact, and thank God, everything is fine. We are very happy and relieved.”

The missile attack came after Ukrainian air-defense teams spent hours tracking and trying to shoot down attack drones in the skies above the country.

Russia uses drones to both hit targets and exhaust air-defense teams, and for months, it has sent swarms of them into Ukraine nearly every night. Many are “dummy” drones, with no warheads, meant to overwhelm mobile air-defense teams on watch 24 hours a day.

Kyiv tries to reserve its more sophisticated air-defense systems for contending with cruise and ballistic missiles, which are both deadlier and more costly to produce.

One air-raid alert had just ended in Kyiv shortly before 6 a.m. when booms were heard throughout the city. Seconds later, air-raid sirens began to wail.

Explosions were also reported in other parts of Ukraine.

In Zaporizhzhia, in the south, at least 10 people were injured, including one critically, after a strike on infrastructure. The city has come under heavy attack recently, including a strike this month that killed 13 civilians and injured at least 110 others, according to Ukrainian officials.

The United Nations estimated that there had been a 30 percent increase in civilian casualties in 2024 compared with 2023, as Russia seeks to batter Ukraine into submission.

Saturday’s attack came a day after Russian missiles struck the city of Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, killing four people and damaging buildings.

“Each such terrorist attack is another reminder of who we are dealing with,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said after the strike on Kryvyi Rih, his hometown. “Russia will not stop on its own. It can only be stopped by joint pressure. The pressure of everyone in the world who values life.”

Ukraine has been building its own arsenal of missiles and long-range drones to hit back. In recent weeks, it has stepped up its campaign of targeting oil and gas facilities deep inside Russia.

That campaign continued on Saturday, with fires reported at an oil depot in the Tula region, south of Moscow, and the Kaluga region, about 100 miles southwest of Moscow.

Liubov Sholudko contributed reporting from Kyiv.