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One person killed as city mayor says air defences are operating across the city after attack on Friday morning.
At least one person has been killed and two wounded after multiple explosions took place in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, with the city’s mayor saying air defences were operating following a missile attack on Friday morning.
Media reports, quoting witnesses on the ground, said a series of loud blasts were heard in Kyiv and smoke could be seen rising over part of the city.
“Ballistic missile from the north!” the Ukrainian Air Force warned in a Telegram message.
Local media outlet the Kyiv Independent said multiple explosions took place at about 7am (05:00 GMT). It quoted Mayor Vitali Klitschko as saying that “multiple cars were on fire in the Holosiivskyi district of the city due to the falling debris from a missile”.
Fires also broke out in the Solomianskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts of Kyiv, as well as at a construction site in the Dnipro district.
“Emergency services are heading to the scene,” the city mayor added.
Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said that “according to preliminary reports, one person was killed.”
Russia launched eight missiles on Kyiv, Popko added. It used hypersonic Kinzhal missiles and Iskander/KN-23 ballistic missiles to carry out the attack.
Prior to the air raid, Ukraine’s Air Force warned that a MiG-31 Russian fighter jet capable of firing hypersonic missiles had taken off from a Russian airbase, Kyiv Independent reported.
At a press conference on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested he would test his claims that Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile is impervious to air defences.
Air raid alerts were issued twice during the night in Kyiv due to drone attacks. The city authorities stated that the air defence intercepted all drones and that debris fell in the Desnianskyi district.
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