Russian missile attacks leave five dead and start fires near Kyiv

Night-time Russian drone and missile attacks struck across Ukraine, killing at least five people on Tuesday, a day after a heavy barrage pounded energy facilities throughout the country.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks included 81 drones, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles, and that 16 people were injured.

He said four people died, but the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region later said a fifth person had died there from burns in the attacks.

“We will undoubtedly respond to Russia for this and all other attacks. Crimes against humanity cannot go unpunished,” Mr Zelensky wrote on X.

In the Kyiv region, which had struggled with blackouts after an onslaught targeting power facilities on Monday, five air alerts were called during the night.

The regional administration said air defences destroyed all the drones and missiles that Russia fired, but that falling debris set off forest fires.

Mr Zelensky described Monday’s barrage of more than 100 missiles and a similar number of drones as “vile”.

“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

He urged Ukraine’s allies to provide it with long-range weapons and permission to use them on targets inside Russia.

“In order to stop the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities, it is necessary to destroy the place from which the Russian missiles are launched,” Mr Shmyhal said.

“We count on the support of our allies and will definitely make Russia pay.”

President Joe Biden called the Russian attack on energy infrastructure “outrageous” and said he had “reprioritised US air defence exports so they are sent to Ukraine first”.

He also said the US was “surging energy equipment to Ukraine to repair its systems and strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s energy grid”.

The Russian defence ministry said the attacks used “long-range precision air- and sea-based weapons and strike drones against critical energy infrastructure facilities that support the operation of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. All designated targets were hit.”

At least four people were killed in the attacks on Monday.

In Russia, meanwhile, officials reported four Ukrainian missiles were shot down over the Kursk region, where Russian forces are fighting Ukrainian troops that made a surprise incursion this month.

The fighting in the region has raised concerns about the nuclear power plant. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said he would visit the plant on Tuesday.