At least fourteen people have lost their lives and around 60 have been injured after a new wave of bombings launched since Sunday night by the Russian Army against the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, according to the latest update provided by the Minister of the Interior, Igor Klimenko.
"The Russian attack on Kiev and the region has already claimed the lives of 14 people (...) Almost 60 more residents were injured, including five children. All are receiving the necessary assistance," Klimenko reported on social media.
The head of the Interior Ministry specified that 64 people have managed to be "rescued" and pointed out that more than 5,000 residents of the Kiev region have had to temporarily abandon their homes while search and assistance efforts by emergency teams continue.
"Despite the risks they face, at this moment they are an indispensable support for thousands of people," Klimenko highlighted, referring to the rescuers working in the area.
The Podilski and Darnitski districts have been particularly hit by this new series of attacks against the capital, which last week already suffered massive bombings in which around twenty people died.
This description coincides with that provided by the governor of Kiev, Timur Tkachenko, who stressed that "the most serious situation is in the Darnitsia and Podilski districts, where the Russians have directly bombed high-rise residential buildings. "The situation is changing," he noted, adding that "relief operations are being carried out in more than 20 locations."
The Ukrainian Air Force reported in a statement that, during the night, Russian forces launched 351 drones and 68 missiles against different areas of the country, including six 'Zircon' anti-ship missiles, 29 'Iskander' and 'Kalibr' ballistic missiles, and 33 'Kh-101' cruise missiles.
According to these same sources, air defense systems managed to shoot down 37 missiles and 326 drones, although impacts were registered in 34 points in Ukraine and debris from interceptions fell in another 16 locations. "The attack continues, as there are numerous drones in Ukrainian airspace," the Air Force warned.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, for its part, has acknowledged a "massive attack" against Ukraine, which it has described as "a response to the terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime against civilian infrastructure in Russia," according to a statement released on social media.
The department has explained that its forces have used "precision and long-range weapons," in addition to drones, to strike "military industry facilities and fuel and energy facilities" in Kiev and the Kiev region, as well as "military airfield infrastructure" in Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasi, and Chernihiv.
The attack occurred a few hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of possible new saturation attacks by Russia, based on information from Ukrainian intelligence. "It is typical of (Vladimir) Putin: just after the United States Independence Day and before the NATO summit in Ankara," he stated in his usual daily evening message.