By Pavel Polityuk, Valentyn Ogirenko and Serhiy Karazy
KYIV (Reuters) -A pre-dawn Russian missile salvo on the Ukrainian capital killed at least one civilian and injured four others on Wednesday, sparking several fires in the city of three million, Ukrainian officials said.
A series of powerful explosions shook the capital around 0230 GMT as local officials said air defenses were working to thwart the attacks.
“This Russian terror against Ukraine will not stop on its own,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after the attack, urging unity among partners for a just end to the war.
“Putin is not preparing for peace – he continues to kill Ukrainians and destroy cities.”
Prospects for renewed peace negotiations to end the war that Russia launched on Ukraine nearly three years ago have increased after U.S. President Donald Trump said that he had been in contact with Kyiv and Putin. Zelenskiy also said on Tuesday that Kyiv would soon hold talks with U.S. officials.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down six out of seven ballistic missiles launched in the attack. Out of 123 drones, the military shot down 71 and likely used electronic countermeasures against 40 more.
Local officials on the Telegram app said that at least one person was killed and four injured, including a 9-year-old child, in the attack on Kyiv.
Photos shared by the state emergency services showed rescuers putting out flames engulfing a carcass of a non-residential building in the region surrounding Kyiv where no casualties were reported.
The overnight attack also damaged critical infrastructure and injured two people in the northern region of Chernihiv, local officials said.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, Pavel Polityuk, Valentyn Ogirenko and Serhiy Karazy in Kyiv; writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Anastasiia Malenko in Kyiv; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Bernaette Baum)
