Russian Ballistic Missiles Hit Kyiv: One Dead, 10 Injured

Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles on the evening of Monday, 26 October, killing one person and injuring 10, most of them students from a university dormitory.

According to the Air Force and monitoring channels, a ballistic threat from Russia's Bryansk region was announced at 21:41, followed by reports of missiles moving towards Kyiv from the Chernihiv region. Explosions were heard in the capital within minutes. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a missile hit near a metro station in the Desnianskyi district.

Damage across the capital

In the Desnianskyi district a dormitory of an educational institution was damaged, and a missile struck next to a residential building, where people may have been trapped. A 20-year-old woman was injured near the dormitory. Klitschko later said one person had been killed near a nearby supermarket. By 23:24 the toll stood at one dead and 10 injured.

In the Dniprovskyi district the blast wave blew out windows in the intensive care unit of one hospital and in two departments of another. Patients and staff were not hurt. A building on a non-residential site was also hit. Among the injured were two ambulance medics who arrived at the scene, a paramedic and an emergency medical technician; their wounds were preliminarily described as non-critical. The Auchan hypermarket in the Prospekt shopping centre near Chernihivska metro station was also damaged; the chain said nobody was hurt, and the store will stay closed until the damage is assessed and repaired.

Zelensky: delays in air defence "help terror"

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the missiles hit the grounds of a university in Kyiv and the area around it, effectively a campus, Kyoto Park, and territory near a metro station and residential buildings. "The missile strikes hit very crowded places, and there is not a single military facility nearby. This is a strike simply at the city, at its infrastructure," he said, adding that repeat strikes were possible.

"In conditions where the threat is constant, artificial delays in air defence for Ukraine help terror," Zelensky said, adding that political agreements must be implemented quickly at the level of working teams and that partners must understand Ukraine needs proper tools to destroy the launchers of Russian ballistic missiles. In his words, that would be the most effective way to save lives.

Just after 03:00 on 27 October Kyiv was attacked with ballistic missiles again; see our report on the Southern Bridge hit. More war coverage is in the World section.