[1/3] A view of the Ukrainian capital at dawn during a Russian drone strike, amid a Russian offensive on Ukraine, in Kiev, Ukraine May 30, 2023. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
KIEV (Reuters) – Russia launched a new wave of air strikes in Ukraine early on Sunday, Ukrainian authorities said, bombing an airport in the country’s central region but failing to hit the capital, Kiev.
Air force spokesman Yuri Ahnat told local television that four of the six cruise missiles were shot down by air defenses, but two hit a “working airport” near the central city of Kropivnytskyi.
He added that two out of five Iranian drones launched by Russia hit the infrastructure in the northern Sumy region.
Kiev officials said that the air defenses shot down all the projectiles that were targeting the capital before they reached the city.
Separately, a two-year-old girl was killed and 22 people were injured in a previous Russian missile attack on Sunday near the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine, the region’s governor said.
Russia has stepped up its regular attacks on Kiev since May, especially at night, in what officials describe as an attempt to damage morale ahead of a long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake Russian-occupied territory.
“For the second night in a row, Kyiv residents do not hear explosions over their heads,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the local military department, said on Telegram.
Reuters could not independently verify the claim, but witnesses said they heard several explosions in the Kiev region.
All of Ukraine remained under air raid alert for nearly three hours.
Additional reporting by Gleb Garanich and Dan Belichuk in Kiev and Lydia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Daniel Wallis, William Mallard, and Nick McPhee
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