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Explosions in Kyiv as Ukraine says missile attack targets capital
Two people wounded as city mayor says air defences are operating across the city after attack on Friday morning.
Rescuers work at the site of a building destroyed during a missile strike in central Kyiv [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters]Published On 20 Dec 202420 Dec 2024
At least two people have been reported wounded after multiple explosions took place in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with the city’s mayor saying air defences were operating following a missile attack on Friday morning.
Media reports, quoting witnesses on the ground, said a series of loud blasts were heard in Kyiv and smoke could be seen rising over part of the city.
“Ballistic missile from the north!” the Ukrainian Air Force warned in a Telegram message.
Local media outlet the Kyiv Independent said multiple explosions took place at about 7am (05:00 GMT). It quoted Mayor Vitali Klitschko as saying that “multiple cars were on fire in the Holosiivskyi district of the city due to the falling debris from a missile”.
Fires also broke out in the Solomianskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts of Kyiv, as well as at a construction site in the Dnipro district.
Prior to the attack, Ukraine’s Air Force warned that a MiG-31 Russian fighter jet capable of firing hypersonic missiles had taken off from a Russian airbase, Kyiv Independent reported.
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Firefighters work to extinguish a fire near the site of a building destroyed [Thomas Peter/Reuters]