Updated: Russia launches attacks on Ukraine, all missiles targeting Kyiv intercepted
Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Russian forces launched missile attacks overnight on June 12, targeting multiple Ukrainian regions.
In the capital, Kyiv, multiple Kyiv Independent journalists reported hearing explosions around 4 a.m. local time.
All targets aimed against the capital were intercepted, the city's military administration reported, but falling debris caused damage in the region.
One person suffered leg lacerations as a result of falling debris in Kyiv Oblast, the regional military administration reported.
A fire broke out in an industrial facility in Kyiv Oblast as a result of the attack. The falling debris damaged a house, a gas station, and a garage in the oblast, and another fire broke out elsewhere in a warehouse.
Ukrainian defenses downed all the 24 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia, as well as one Kinzhal Kh-47M2 air-launched ballistic missile and four Kh-101/555 cruise missiles over Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kharkiv, and Vinnytsia oblasts, the Air Force said.
Russia also reportedly launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile, but the Air Force did not report that it was intercepted.
Eleven of the Shahed-type drones were shot down in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where the attacks resulted in damage and injured two people: a 39-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman. Their 13-year-old son suffered shock, Governor Serhii Lysak said.
In Sumy Oblast, a Russian drone attack damaged an energy facility, leaving 14 settlements without power, Ukraine's energy operator Ukrenergo said.
Polish and other allied aircraft were scrambled to protect the country's own airspace in response to reports of the Russian missile attacks, the Operational Command of Poland's Armed Forces said on X.
Air raid alerts were turned off for most of the country at 4:45 a.m, and the remaining regions around 5:15 a.m. An hour later, around 6:15 a.m., air raid alerts were once again activated across the country as Ukraine's Air Force warned of the threat of missile attacks launched by Russian MiG-31 fighter jets.
In recent months, Russia has intensified its attacks against Ukraine's critical infrastructure in a renewed assault against the country's energy grid.
As a result of the attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine began implementing rolling shutdowns on May 15, but they have dramatically increased in recent days.
Liliane Bivings
