Russia’s second missile attack on Kyiv this week injured at least 53 people, damaging homes and a children’s hospital, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed in Washington for more aid for his country.
Windows of residential apartment blocks were blown out and terrified residents poured out into the street to assess the damage.
Missile fragments blew a large crater in the ground and destroyed a parked car.
Ukraine’s air defense system shot down all 10 ballistic missiles aimed at the capital at about 3 a.m., the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram.
Falling debris caused injuries and destruction in four Kyiv districts along the Dnipro River, which cuts through the capital, officials said.
Thirty-five buildings were damaged, according to the city’s military administration.
A man walks with a destroyed car next to a damaged residential building following a missile attack in Kyiv, on Dec. 13, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
Ukrainian national police said 53 people, including six children, were injured in the attack.
Eighteen people have been hospitalized, he said in a social media post.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine identified the projectiles as Iskander-M ballistic missiles, as well as the S-400: a very fast missile intended for air defense, but has also been used to hit ground targets.
A police officer walks with a destroyed car next to a damaged residential building following a missile attack in Kyiv, on Dec. 13, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, praised Western-supplied air defense systems and their operators after Ukraine downed all 10 of the forces.
“The effectiveness of Western weapons in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers cannot be doubted,” Yermak said on the Telegram messaging app.
Windows and entrance doors were broken by shrapnel at a children’s hospital in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district, but based on preliminary assessments, there were no casualties, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
Emergency personnel work at the site of an apartment building damaged during a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on Dec. 13, 2023. REUTERS
Debris also hit several residential buildings in Dniprovskyi district.
The district’s water supply was damaged.
The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, said 17 people, including seven children, were evacuated from a residential building in Dniprovskyi district after debris hit a nearby building and car, causing a fire.
He added that most of the injuries came from windows blown away by the blast wave.
Emergency workers carry an injured local resident at the site of an apartment building damaged during a Russian missile attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, on Dec. 13, 2023. REUTERS
“There are many injured,” Popko said.
The attack followed a ballistic missile attack that targeted Kyiv earlier on Monday and injured four people.
On Tuesday, President Biden warned Republicans that they would give Russia a “Christmas present” if they failed to provide additional military aid to Zelensky, whose meeting with top US lawmakers concluded without a commitment to more support.
A resident looks at their apartment damaged during a Russian missile attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, on Dec. 13, 2023. REUTERS
There was no comment from Russia on Wednesday’s attack, which also damaged buildings in Kyiv’s Desnyanskyi, Darnitskyi and Holosiivskyi districts.
Both Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians in the nearly 22-month war that Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022.
The air force said it also shot down all 10 attack drones launched by Russia in Odesa region in southern Ukraine.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
