Max Hunder, Pavel Polityuk

KYIV (Reuters – Russia struck Kyiv on Sunday with cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea, hitting a railway repair facility in Kiev, the Ukrainian army said.

The sky over Kyiv’s eastern suburbs was filled with dark smoke. According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, at least one person was taken to the hospital but there were no immediate reports of deaths.

The military stated that Ukrainian air defenses had shot down an incoming missile around 6 AM local (0300 GMT).

Kyiv resident Kostyantyn Nikitenko, who lives near the repair facility, said that he immediately took shelter in his apartment’s corridor when he heard several powerful explosions around that time.

“Every 10-30 seconds the next explosions came. With every new explosion, it was more and more powerful, and I got the impression that it was getting closer and closer,” he said, adding that afterwards he saw a 100-metre column of black smoke emerging from behind a nearby building.

“There hasn’t been a strike on Kyiv in a while, and perhaps most people, including myself, developed a kind of illusion that the worst was behind us. But this was a reminder that the war is still going on,” Nikitenko said.

Telegram reported that a Russian missile, likely headed towards Kyiv, flew “critically high” above a nuclear power station in southern Mykolaiv. Energoatom, a state-run nuclear operator, said this on Telegram. Later, it posted a video that appeared to verify its claim. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the footage.

Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed that its missiles have destroyed T72 tanks and armoured vehicle supplied to Ukraine from eastern European countries. They were stored in Kyiv at a railcar repair facility.

Oleksandr Kamyshin of Ukraine’s railway confirmed the destruction of four missiles at Darnytsia Rail Car Repair Facility in Eastern Kyiv. However, he said that there were no military equipment on the site.

He stated, “Their target (Russia) is the economy as well as the civilian population.”

Moscow denies targeting civilians as part of what it describes as a “specially military operation.”

As Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2004, the sprawling rail system was a lifeline. It also helped to cut off export routes through the Black Sea.

After the death of Radio Liberty producer, Radio Liberty was hit by a Russian missile strike in late April. The building where she lived had been hit.

The Ukrainian Air Force stated in a statement that “according to preliminary information, the (Russians] launched missiles using Tu-95 aircrafts from the Caspian Sea,”

Mykhailo Podolyak, presidential adviser, called for more sanctions against Russia in order to sanction it for its strikes and supply weapons to Ukraine.

The Kremlin is resorting to insidious new attacks. Today’s missile strikes at Kyiv have only one goal – kill as many as possible,” he wrote in a tweet.

Brovary is a historic city located 20km (12 miles) outside Kyiv. The mayor urged residents to keep their houses locked as there were reports of smokey stench.

Although air raid sirens are a constant disruption of life in Kyiv’s streets, there have not been any major attacks on the city for several weeks since Moscow moved the center of its invasion towards the east and the south.

While the Dniprovskyi is located on the right bank of Dnipro River, it stretches along the border of Kyiv and the river shores.

Oleksandr Honcharenko was the mayor of Kramatorsk, Donetsk, in the east. He reported that overnight strikes had occurred on the city. There were no injuries but a lot of damage.