KIEV (AP) – Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital early Sunday, striking at least two buildings, the mayor of Kiev said, as elsewhere Russian troops fought to consolidate their gains in the country’s east.
Associated Press journalists in Kiev saw rescue services battling flames and rescuing civilians. The general prosecutor’s office said preliminary information indicated one person was killed and four injured; Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said four people were hospitalized with injuries.
A nearby kindergarten was also damaged, with a crater in its courtyard.
A member of the Ukrainian parliament, Oleksiy Goncharenko, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that “according to prelim data 14 missiles were launched against Kiev region and Kiev.” Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said the missiles were Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles fired from planes over the Caspian Sea.
In the city of Cherkasy, about 160 kilometers southeast of Kiev, one person was killed and five injured in strikes by two Russian rockets, regional governor Ihor Taburets said.
The early morning Russian airstrikes were the first to successfully target the capital since June 5.
Klitschko told journalists that he believed “it is maybe a symbolic attack” ahead of an upcoming NATO summit in Madrid.
Two more explosions were later heard in Kiev, but their cause and possible casualties were not immediately clear.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have battled to take the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk region, pressing their momentum after taking full control Saturday of the city of Sievierodonetsk, including a chemical plant where hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians had holed up.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Sunday that Russia was conducting intense airstrikes on the adjacent city of Lysychansk, destroying its television tower and seriously damaging a road bridge.
“There’s very much destruction — Lysychansk is almost unrecognizable,” he wrote on Facebook.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said late Saturday that Russian and Moscow-backed forces now control Sievierodonetsk and the villages surrounding it. He said the attempt by Ukrainian forces to turn the Azot plant into a “stubborn center of resistance” had been thwarted.
Haidai confirmed Saturday that Sievierodonetsk had fallen to Russian fighters, who he said were now trying to blockade Lysychansk from the south.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the Russia-backed forces, Andrei Marochko, as saying Russian troops and separatist fighters had entered Lysychansk and that fighting was taking place in the heart of the city. There was no immediate comment on the claim from the Ukrainian side.
Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk have been the focal point of the war aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it.