UPDATES WITH FURTHER REMARKS ON MISSILE ATTACK IN KYIV; CHANGES HEAD, DECK, LEDE; REVISIONS THROUGHOUT
By Seda Sevencan and Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) — At least 20 people were injured in multiple regions of Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, as Russia launched fresh missile strikes early Monday.
Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said on Telegram that Russia's overnight missile attack on the capital injured two people, one of whom was hospitalized.
Alleging that the Russian strike on Kyiv was a combined attack, made up of both cruise and ballistic missiles, Popko said the missiles were most likely launched at around 3 a.m. local time (0000GMT).
Noting that the cruise missiles approached the city from the south after making "complex maneuvers," he further claimed that as they closed in, Russian forces "fired KN-24/Iskander-M ballistic missiles at Kyiv and its suburbs. To this was added one strike UAV."
According to Popko, Ukrainian air defense forces were able to destroy more than a dozen cruise missiles, about a dozen ballistic missiles, and an attack drone over Kyiv.
He said debris from the missiles fell on the city's Holosiivskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, Dniprovskyi, and Shevchenkivskyi districts.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that, due to the missile attack, fires broke out in four cars and a two-story non-residential building in the Sviatoshynskyi district.
He said another blaze erupted on the grounds of an company in the Shevchenkivskyi district and that a boiler house in the Holosiivskyi district was also damaged.
Elsewhere, at least 18 people were injured in the northeastern Sumy region due to the strike, which hit the premises of an educational institution, the regional administration said on Telegram.
Ukraine's Air Force claimed in a statement that the country's air defenses downed 22 out of 35 missiles and 20 out of 22 attack drones launched by Russia over Kyiv, as well as the Kharkiv and Sumy regions.
"In addition, as a result of active countermeasures by the Defense Forces of Ukraine, one X-101 cruise missile and three attack UAVs did not reach their targets and were lost in location," he added.
Russian authorities have not yet commented on the strike.