Russian forces carried out strikes on logistics centers in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and its surroundings last night, which are used for military purposes, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on the Telegram application, quoted by Reuters, BTA reports.
The Moscow department said that three merchant ships were also hit in the Black Sea near the Ukrainian port city of Odessa.
Earlier, Ukraine's Emergency Situations Service reported that the victims of Russian strikes in Kiev and its surroundings last night are now at least 15.
In addition, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that its air defense forces shot down 475 Ukrainian drones that night.
Russian strikes caused the death of at least two people in Kiev and the Kiev region and caused fires in warehouses overnight, local authorities reported, quoted by Agence France-Presse.
Earlier, an AFP journalist on the ground heard about ten loud explosions around midnight. The Ukrainian Air Force had reported the approach of several ballistic missiles.
According to the military administration of the city of Kiev, authorities have identified the effects of the attack at “more than seven locations“ in the capital — in Golosievsky, Desniansky, Obolonsky and Svyatoshinsky districts.
“Fires broke out in warehouses, a large area was affected“, they reported, adding that “housing infrastructure“ was also damaged.
“Two wounded were pulled out of the rubble of a destroyed warehouse“, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
Later, the city military administration specified that one woman had died in Kyiv and 12 others had been injured. According to Ukrainian emergency services, the Russian army had used drones and ballistic missiles.
In the Kyiv region, more precisely in the Bucha region, another person had died in Russian strikes, the regional military administration reported, and at least 21 people had been injured. According to the national emergency services, the attack caused fires in warehouses and other logistics facilities.
More than four years after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, strikes on both sides of the front are intensifying, causing a growing number of civilian casualties.
Kiev is demanding more US Patriot missiles to be able to defend its airspace from Russian ballistic attacks.