Ukraine has intercepted 31 missiles launched by Russia at Kyiv overnight, Ukraine's air force said.

At least 17 people, including a child, were injured by falling debris, four of whom are in hospital, authorities said.

It is the largest Russian attack in weeks and follows a vow from Moscow for revenge over recent attacks by Ukraine on its border regions.

The attack prompted Ukraine's President Zelensky to renew his call for more military aid from Western allies.

The alarms first sounded at 03:00 local time with a warning of a ballistic missile threat. The first explosions were heard two hours later.

Debris fell in the Podilsky, Shevchenkivskyi and Sviatoshyn districts, causing fires on the roofs of a power transformer, several residential buildings and cars, the head of the city military administration Serhiy Popko said on Telegram.

"As a result of successful combat operations, all enemy missiles were shot down over Kyiv and on the approaches to the capital," Mr Popko said.

At this stage, it is not clear what Russia was targeting.

In one residential district of Kyiv, Lukyanivka, the attack left a large, round crater in the street. The blast, and the shockwave, had smashed windows and damaged buildings all around.

A coffee kiosk was a mangled wreck. Other businesses, including a food shop and medical clinics, were in ruins. The staff, openly upset, swept up heaps of shattered glass. In the flats above, residents were trying to recover their belongings from the wreckage.

Many people spent the early hours of the morning in basements and in the metro, sheltering underground for safety.

One woman, Sofia, who had come to Kyiv for her mother's 50th birthday, was in tears as she visited the bomb site soon after the attack.

"They're destroying our past, our future," she said, upset at what she felt was the world's indifference to - or fading interest in - Ukraine's pain.

"Maybe more of us need to die, to suffer, to spill more blood?" she said.

"The cars were burning over there, everything was exploding... I came back, took cat carriers, tried to find my cats, but I couldn't," said Kyiv resident Tetiana.

On Wednesday, five people were killed in a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Officials in the nearby Sumy region said that more than 300 people had been forced to flee since last week because of intensified shelling and Russian air strikes, and more were being evacuated.

Mr Zelensky has repeated his calls for further military aid over recent days, specifically calling on the West to send Ukraine more air defence systems.

"Such terror continues every day and night. World unity is able to stop it when it helps us with air defence systems," Mr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram, hours after the Kyiv attack.

"Now this protection is needed here in Ukraine... It is quite possible if the partners have enough political will," he said.

Last month, Mr Zelensky made an urgent appeal for more weapons at an international conference in Germany.

"Keeping Ukraine in the artificial deficits of weapons, particularly in deficit of artillery and long-range capabilities, allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war," he said.

On the other side of the border, Russian towns have also been hit by attacks

Earlier this week, 16 people were killed and 98 were injured in a series of attacks on the Russian border city of Belgorod, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Thousands of children will be evacuated from the city and the surrounding area over the coming weeks as a result, he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who just secured himself another six years in the Kremlin, has vowed to go on prosecuting this war.

Last week, Mr Putin said that the Ukrainian strikes on Russia "do not and will not go unpunished".

For Ukrainians, that means more nervous nights, more missiles, more destruction.

In Brussels, EU leaders are meeting to discuss boosting military and financial aid for Ukraine. A proposals to transfer billions of euros' worth of frozen Russian assets to Kyiv may also be discussed.

In a letter sent to leaders ahead of the summit, European Council President Charles Michel wrote that the bloc was facing a "pivotal moment" and that the summit would be a chance to "accelerate" the EU's efforts to send military aid to Ukraine.

Mr Michel also wrote that the EU needed to put its economy on a "war footing".

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by Sarah Rainsford, Jacqueline Howard & Laura Gozzi, | In Kyiv & London

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