Ukraine war: Three killed in overnight missile attack on Kyiv

Three people have died, including an 11-year-old girl, in a new night-time missile attack on Kyiv, regional police have said.

Russia has been subjecting the Ukrainian capital to regular aerial strikes with missiles and drones.

The latest attack, in which 11 other people were reported injured, occurred in the eastern Desnyanskyi and Dniprovskyi districts.

A 33-year-old woman and the girl’s 34-year-old mother were also killed.

Earlier information from Ukrainian officials reported that two children had died, but that has since been revised.

This is the fourth attack this week, and comes after 17 strikes were launched on the Ukrainian capital throughout May. Most took place at night, although at least one occurred during the day.

Images shared by military authorities showed teams of rescuers attending to people, as well as damaged buildings.

In a number of early morning posts on Telegram, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a “series of explosions” had taken place in the city, and that rescuers had been dealing with fallen debris and fires.

Meanwhile, Russian-backed officials in the occupied part of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region said five people had been killed and 19 injured by Ukrainian shelling at a poultry farm on Wednesday.

On Thursday morning, the governor of the western Russian region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, said at least two people had been injured in an attack on the town of Shebekino which he blamed on Ukrainian troops.

“The night is tense for Shebekino again. Ukrainian troops were shelling the city for an hour,” Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on his Telegram channel.

In recent weeks, Russia – which launched its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022 – has been using kamikaze drones as well as a range of cruise and ballistic missiles to attack targets in Ukraine.

Kyiv has been heavily targeted, and analysts believe Moscow is trying to deplete and damage Ukraine‘s air defences ahead of a long-expected counter-offensive, which the Ukrainian government has been planning for months.