Russia renews strikes on Kyiv

On the job: Rescue workers being elevated by a crane to reach residents of an apartment damaged by a missile strike in Kyiv. — Reuters

KYIV: Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital, striking at least two residential buildings, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, as elsewhere Russian troops consolidated their gains in the east.

Associated Press journalists in Kyiv saw rescue services battling flames and rescuing civilians in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Klitschko said four people were hospitalised with injuries and a seven-year-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble.

Ukraine Member of Parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app that “according to prelim data 14 missiles were launched against Kyiv region and Kyiv”.

Before yesterday’s early morning attack, Kyiv had not faced any such Russian airstrikes since June 5.

Klitschko told journalists that he believed “it is maybe a symbolic attack” ahead of this week’s Nato summit in Madrid.

Two more explosions were later heard in Kyiv, but their cause and possible casualties were not immediately clear.

A Ukrainian air force spokesperson said the strike was carried out with between four to six long-range missiles fired from Russian bombers more than 1,000km away in the southern Russian region of Astrakhan.

He said some of the incoming missiles were shot down.

“The Russians hit Kyiv again. Missiles damaged an apartment building and a kindergarten,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the president’s administration.

A Reuters photographer saw a large blast crater by a playground in a private kindergarten that had smashed windows.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have been seeking to swallow up the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk region, pressing their momentum after taking full control on Saturday of the charred ruins of Sievierodonetsk and the chemical plant where hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians had been holed up.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region that includes Sievierodonetsk, said yesterday 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 unrecognisable,” he wrote on Facebook.

On Saturday, Russia also launched dozens of missiles on several areas across the country far from the heart of the eastern battles.

Some of the missiles were fired from Russian long-range Tu-22 bombers deployed from Belarus for the first time, Ukraine’s air command said.

The bombardment preceded a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, during which Putin announced that Russia planned to supply Belarus with the Iskander-M missile system.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said late Saturday that Russian and Moscow-backed separatist forces now controlled Sievierodonetsk and the villages surrounding it. — Agencies