Ukraine Russia war latest news: Kyiv bombarded in huge strike as Poland ‘has duty’ to shoot down Putin’s missiles

Ukrainian forces destroyed 22 out of 35 missiles and 20 out of 23 attack drones launched by Russia on Monday morning, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

It said on the Telegram messenger that it had destroyed nine ballistic missiles and 13 cruise missiles in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Russia launched a barrage of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles at Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force said early today.

Several series of explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital in the early hours this morning, sending residents into bomb shelters.

Kyiv mayor Vitalii Klitschko said emergency services were called to the Holosiivskyi and Solomianskyi districts of Kyiv. One person was reportedly injured by falling debris in Shevchenkivskyi district, Mr Klitschko said.

Some kindergartens will shut for a week in the Russian city of Belgorod near Ukraine’s border while several schools will hold online classes after a Kyiv attack destroyed a childcare facility today, the region’s governor said.

“It’s a bad morning for the Belgorod region,” the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in a post on social network VKontakte the day classes were set to resume after the summer vacation. “A kindergarten in the city of Belgorod has been almost completely destroyed.”

After the attack, authorities decided that several schools in the city’s large district of Kharkovskaya Gora would hold classes online, while kindergartens would be shut for a week, Gladkov said.

Russia’s air defence units destroyed one Ukraine-launched drone overnight, the defence ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukrainian forces have long subjected the city of Belgorod and nearby districts to shelling and other attacks. Kyiv says its attacks target infrastructure key to Moscow’s war efforts.

The early morning missile attack on Kyiv has injured at least two people, mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Cars were set ablaze across the city as well as a non-residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district, he added.

Russia pounded Ukraine’s capital with missiles early today, while falling debris from the downed weapons sparked fires and damaged homes and infrastructure, officials said.

Emergency services also went to the districts of Svyatoshynksyi, Holosiivskyi, and Solomyanskyi, where debris fell from destroyed missiles, Mr Klitschko added.

One of Volodymyr Zelensky’s senior aides has immediately pledged retribution to Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine with dozens of missiles and drones.

“There will be an answer for everything. The enemy will feel it,” the head of the presidential office, Andrii Yermak, posted on his Telegram page following the attack.

Over 10 cruise missiles, about 10 ballistic missiles and a drone fired at the Ukrainian capital and its suburbs were destroyed by Ukraine’s air defences, said Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv’s city military administration.

An explosion was also heard in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, according to Ukrainian media. Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region, confirmed an early morning strike on Kharkiv’s Industrialnyi district and said it set a residential building and several others on fire.

Kyiv’s emergency services are responding after a major Russian attack involving cruise and ballistic missiles this morning caused damage and injuries across the city.

All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts, while neighbouring Nato member Poland activated its own and allied aircraft to ensure the safety of its airspace.

Ukraine’s air force said repeated launches of ballistic missiles targeted Kyiv, while city officials said air defence units were repelling the attacks.

A fire broke out in the Shevchenkivskyi district, where medics were attending to at least one person, the capital’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. The district is home to a cluster of universities and schools.

Emergency services also went to the districts of Svyatoshynksyi, Holosiivskyi, and Solomyanskyi, he added.

Solomyanskyi is home to a major train station and Kyiv’s main airport. The historic neighbourhood of Svyatoshynksyi is on the city’s western edge, while Holosiivskyi is in its southwest.

Reuters’ witnesses in Kyiv heard a series of loud explosions in what sounded like the work of air defence units, some in the central area.

The attack came exactly a week after Moscow launched more than 200 missiles and drones on Ukraine, killing seven people and striking energy facilities nationwide in what Kyiv called the war’s “most massive” air attack yet.

A boiler house at a water plant in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district was partially destroyed by a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian capital early this morning, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Emergency and rescue services are working, he said. The impact and any injuries in the strike are not immediately clear.

The boiler was attacked in the early morning strikes by Russia against Ukraine. The strikes also damaged a metro station serving as a shelter for displaced people during strikes.

Russian forces fired more than 1,300 missiles, drones and bombs at Ukraine in the past week alone, president Volodymyr Zelensky said in yesterday.

“Just in the past week, Russia has launched over 160 missiles of various types, 780 guided aerial bombs, and 400 strike UAVs of different kinds against our people. To fully protect and safeguard our cities from this aggression, we need greater support for Ukraine’s rightful response,” he said sharing a video yesterday showing the attacked Ukrainian sites.

He asked his allies to allow Kyiv to carry out long-range strikes on Russia’s missile launch sites.

“It is entirely justified for Ukrainians to respond to Russian terror by any means necessary to stop it. Every day and night, our cities and villages endure enemy attacks,” he said.

Polish and allied aircraft were activated early this morning to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched air strikes on Ukraine, the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said.

“In the southeastern part of the country there may be an increased noise level related to the commencement of operations in our airspace by Polish and allied aircraft,” it said in a statement.

The southeastern part of Poland borders Ukraine and has previously witnessed airspace violations by Russian jets in the course of the invasion of Ukraine.

At least two were killed after a Ukrainian helicopter on a military training flight crashed yesterday, the Air Force’s university said.

The two dead were the helicopter’s crew members. The Kharkiv Air Force University in a post on Facebook said investigators and officials from Ukraine’s defence ministry were working to determine the cause of the crash