Explosions, fires reported in Kyiv amid Russian missile attack
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Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Russia once again unleashed a barrage of ballistic missiles strikes on Kyiv overnight on June 28, damaging several sites within the city and injuring at least one person, officials said.
Explosions were first reported in Kyiv just before 2 a.m. local time, according to a Kyiv Independent journalist on the ground, and then again around 2:35 a.m. amid another wave of missiles.
Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said that at least one person was injured in the Darnytskyi district of the city amid the attack.
Fire were also reported in the neighborhood, including near a residential building, as well as at service station and a unspecified "non-residential building."
Ukraine's Air Force warned of the threat of several Russian missiles flying towards the capital. Air raid alerts were activated in the central and eastern regions of the country.
Local officials said air defenses were active over Kyiv. Photos and videos posted to social media purport to show several missiles being intercepted over the capital, although officials have yet to confirm the result of the attack.
No information was immediately available as to any damage caused.
Days earlier on June 25, Russian forces launched a limited missile attack against Kyiv, injuring two people.
Russia's most recent large-scale attack on Kyiv came on June 15 when a massive combined attack killed five people and left the historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in flames.
Kyiv responded with unprecedented attacks on Moscow, hitting the Russian capital and its main oil refinery with waves of drones on June 16 and 18. The June 18 strike was the largest drone attack on Moscow of the full-scale war.
As Russian troops' gains on the front line have stalled, Moscow has increasingly relied on ballistic missiles to inflict maximum damage in large-scale aerial strikes on Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine's ability to protect its cities from Russian ballistic missiles depends heavily on its dwindling supply of Patriot interceptors — ammunition for the U.S.-made air defense system that remains the only weapon to have proven effective against ballistic threats.
