Four dead in a strike in the center of Kiev, says Ukraine

Four people were killed in a Russian air strike on Kiev overnight, local officials say.

The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said air defenses were operating around the Ukrainian capital.

Windows were smashed in the Shevchenkivskyi district, including in a metro station, and a fire broke out in a non-residential building, he added. It is not clear what was intended.

Authorities warned of a ballistic missile threat and urged locals to take shelter.

Videos posted online showed a car on fire and water rushing down a flooded road.

It is the second fatal attack in Kiev this month, after a deadly strike in the city on New Year’s Day.

Meanwhile, in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, local authorities say six people were injured in a Russian strike on Saturday. It is said that a woman is in a serious condition.

These attacks are the latest in the war that began after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Many followed Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory earlier in the week.

On Tuesday, ammunition depots and chemical plants were hit in several regions of Russia, some of which were hundreds of kilometers from the border, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Sources at Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency told the BBC that Tuesday’s attack had been a “painful blow” to Russia’s ability to wage war.

At the time, Russia said it had shot down US-supplied long-range Atacm missiles as well as UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, and pledged to respond to the attack