Russia launches a barrage of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles at Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a barrage of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles at Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force said early Monday.

Several series of explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Monday, sending residents into bomb shelters.

Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said emergency services were called to the Holosiivskyi and Solomianskyi districts of Kyiv. One person was reportedly injured by falling debris in Shevchenkivskyi district, Klitschko said.

“There will be an answer for everything. The enemy will feel it,” the head of the Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak, posted on his Telegram page following the attack.

According to the air force, Russia fired several groups of cruise missiles accompanied by ballistic missile launches and a few drones, targeting Kyiv.

Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv’s city military administration, said over 10 cruise missiles, about 10 ballistic missiles and a drone fired at the Ukrainian capital and its suburbs were destroyed by Ukraine’s air defenses.

An explosion also rang out in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, according to Ukrainian media. Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region, confirmed an early morning strike on Kharkiv’s Industrialnyi district and said it set a residential building and several others on fire.

The barrage comes a day after Russia’s military reported intercepting and destroying 158 Ukrainian drones targeting multiple Russian regions in one of the biggest Ukrainian attacks of the war that has raged for about 2 1/2 years.

It also comes weeks after Ukranian forces’ incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, which Moscow’s forces have struggled to push back so far and to which the Kremlin has vowed to respond.

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