Russia launches missiles against Ukraine’s capital

A woman carries a young patient outside after a Russian missile strike on the Okhmadyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, in July. The New York Times

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By Andrew E. Kramer and Marc Santora

The New York Times

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia ramped up its deep strikes into Ukraine on Wednesday with a volley of missiles aimed at Kyiv and a northeastern border area, ending a more than two-month pause in such attacks on the capital, the Ukrainian air force said.

The missile bombardment came as Russian forces sought to press their advantage in both soldiers and firepower across the eastern front. Ukraine’s military on Wednesday reported a wave of aerial bombing targeting its troops holding a pocket of Russian territory near the northern border that was captured last summer.

As air raid alerts wailed in Kyiv around 6 a.m. and civilians headed for hallways or basements for safety, the Ukrainian air force said it was tracking 96 aerial targets entering the country’s airspace. That included missiles, ending an unusual 73-day pause in Russia’s use of the weapons to strike civilian and military targets in the capital.

The air force said four missiles were aimed at Kyiv and two were short-range missiles fired into the northeastern border area.

The city has in that period come under numerous drone attacks. Scores of drones were also used in the attack Wednesday, the air force said.

Across Ukraine, the past few months have also seen a longer than usual break from large-scale missile attacks. The last major missile attack came Sept. 3, with a strike on a military academy in the eastern Ukrainian city of Poltava that killed more than 50 people.

Military analysts had speculated that Russia was stockpiling missiles for use after the onset of freezing weather, which can wreak additional havoc in a city after a strike if heating is knocked out and water pipes freeze. The season’s first snowstorm swept over central Ukraine on Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, Russia said a senior Russian naval officer was killed in the city of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea after a bomb planted under his car exploded.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which is responsible for investigating serious crimes, said it was considering the death as an act of terrorism. It did not name the officer.

An official at Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, the SBU, speaking about clandestine operations on the condition of anonymity, said the killed officer had been in charge of cruise missile launches from the Black Sea, identifying him as Valeriy Trankovsky.

In Kyiv, explosions rang out early Wednesday and authorities said air defense systems were firing at incoming missiles and drones.

In the attack, Russia synchronized the arrival in the capital of fast-flying ballistic missiles and slower-moving cruise missiles, a common tactic. The Kyiv city military administration initially said North Korean-made Hwasong ballistic missiles may have been used. But Ukraine’s air force later reported that two Russian-made Iskander-M ballistic missiles were shot down.