MOSCOW: A Kyiv ballistic missile attack overnight on November 6 and 7 injured at least six people and damaged the city’s Northern Bridge.
Missile waves hit the capital only hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of another large-scale strike on infrastructure. The Kyiv ballistic missile attack came in several rounds.
What the Kyiv ballistic missile attack hit
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a 14-year-old girl was among the injured, and two people went to hospital. Authorities shut the crucial Northern Bridge to traffic in both directions.
Damage hit the roadbed, the trolleybus wires and a power line, the mayor said. Road and utility workers started repairs early in the morning.
A five-story residential building in the Solomianskyi District took damage, and another building lost its windows. A blaze hit a non-residential building nearby, and a kindergarten took damage as well.
At least six missiles reached the city within minutes just before 11 p.m. local time, the Air Force reported. Another wave came shortly after 1 a.m., and more blasts followed at about 3 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.
Zelensky’s account of the attack
By Zelensky’s count, Russia launched 36 ballistic missiles overnight, every one aimed at Kyiv and its region. He said Russian missiles also hit substations that connect the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear plants to Kyiv and central areas.
Zelensky said Russia was “preparing for the trilateral talks by launching ballistic missiles” at critical infrastructure. He said nine people suffered injuries across the country.
The mayor also described blasts in the suburbs, and he said ballistic missiles were hitting infrastructure sites. The Air Force reported that Russia also launched 172 Shahed-type drones, 137 of them jet-powered. It said defences shot down or suppressed four ballistic missiles and 149 drones.
In the wider Kyiv region, the attack killed one person and injured two, police said. A jet-powered drone also set a home on fire in the Brovary district and injured a man.
Grid damage after the Kyiv ballistic missile attack
DTEK, the country’s biggest private energy company, reported an outage in part of Brovary district. Energy facilities in the Bucha and Obukhiv districts also took damage.
Zelensky said Russia is trying to push Kyiv, a city of millions, and the whole country into a blackout. He told partners that Kyiv counts on increased bilateral support from America.
Heavy strikes have hit Kyiv in recent weeks, as Russia starts its yearly push against the power grid. The city suffered the year’s largest energy strike on November 3, which caused blackouts and water cutoffs.
City officials and the central government have also traded blame over the state of Kyiv’s energy infrastructure before winter.
Talks loom in Abu Dhabi
The attack came days after the Komyshuvakha strike, in which Russian bombs hit a school used for aid distribution. Washington has scheduled talks in Abu Dhabi for November 10 and 11.
Zelensky told Ukrainians that intelligence pointed to another massive strike on bridges, energy sites and civilian infrastructure. For now, the Kyiv ballistic missile attack leaves repairs and winter planning at the top of the agenda.
