Russian strikes kill four in Ukraine, injure dozens

Russia carried out a large-scale wave of strikes against Ukraine on Saturday night, firing hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv was the main target, though other areas were also hit and about 100 people were injured. Four people were killed in the capital and wider region, with explosions heard throughout the night. Dozens of residential buildings, a school, an opera house and a museum were damaged.

Russia's defence ministry said the Oreshnik hypersonic missile was used in the strikes, which it described as a response to Ukraine's attacks on civilian infrastructure. Ukraine's military denies targeting civilians.

Early on Monday, energy infrastructure was damaged in a missile attack on Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, including the city of Belgorod, the Interfax news agency reported, citing local authorities. There were no casualties, but power and water supply were interrupted.

Russia's Yaroslavl region, northeast of Moscow, also came under a drone attack, Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said on Telegram.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He accused Kyiv of hitting a student dormitory in the town of Starobilsk on Friday, in which Russian officials said 21 people were killed. Ukraine's military said its forces attacked Starobilsk in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine overnight on Friday, but maintained that it struck an elite Russian drone military unit.

European leaders condemned the Russian strikes early on Sunday, which came after warnings from Zelensky that Russia was planning an attack and might use the Oreshnik missile. The weapon reportedly travels at more than 10 times the speed of sound, is hard to intercept, and can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.

Zelensky, who on Sunday visited damaged buildings in Kyiv, said Russia had launched the Oreshnik missile against the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region. Ukraine's presidential office later said it was not confirming that and was still working to determine what had been used. It would be the third time Russia has used the Oreshnik missile in the conflict.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned the reported use of the weapon. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas described it as a political scare tactic and reckless nuclear brinkmanship. UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called the scenes in Kyiv awful and vowed to keep up pressure on Russia.

At the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Ukrainian player Marta Kostyuk said after winning her first-round match that all her heart and thoughts go to the people of Ukraine. Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk, who defended his heavyweight world titles against Dutchman Rico Verhoeven in Egypt on Saturday night, said Ukrainian people are sitting in bomb shelters, including his daughter, who sent him a message saying she loves him and that he will win.

Ukraine's air force said that from 18:00 local time on Saturday it detected 90 missiles and 600 drones. Early data showed 55 ballistic and cruise missiles and 549 drones were shot down or intercepted, while 19 missiles may not have reached their targets. It acknowledged 16 direct missile and 51 drone hits in 54 locations. Residential buildings, shopping centres and emergency services buildings were struck.

Zelensky said 69 people had been injured in the capital alone. A water-supply facility was also attacked and the Chornobyl Museum in Kyiv was effectively destroyed. Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the attack on the museum was a deliberate attack on history, memory and truth. Footage showed broken glass windows and rubble scattered everywhere.

Russia's defence ministry said it did not carry out strikes against Ukraine's civilian infrastructure but that command posts of Ukraine's ground forces and the defence ministry's main intelligence directorate were hit. Ukraine has not confirmed this.

Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were killed in the city itself, with 36 others, including two children, in hospital. A person was killed after a nine-storey residential building in the central Shevchenko district was hit and a fire broke out on the top floors. In the same district, a strike near an air raid shelter at a school blocked its entrance with debris, trapping several people inside.

Outside Kyiv, the regions of Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy and Zhytomyr also came under attack, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.