Russia targeted the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, yet again in the early morning hours on Thursday, with air raid sirens warning residents to take shelter and loud booms from the air defense systems heard throughout the city.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said on the Telegram messaging app that according to preliminary information from emergency medical workers, three people had been killed, two of them children, and at least 14 injured, probably from debris that fell when the air defense systems shot down incoming drones.
Of the injured, nine were hospitalized, the mayor added.
It was yet another night when explosions in different parts of the city of 3.6 million jolted people out of bed and sent them scurrying for cover.
While Kyiv has been attacked since the first days of the war, the pace and intensity of the assaults over the past month have been jarring even for civilians now used to spending long hours in bomb shelters and sleepless nights huddled in corridors. And Thursday’s strikes seemed to suggest it would be more of the same in June.
The week started with a rare daytime attack on the capital, with missiles roaring into Kyiv shortly after 11 a.m. Monday. All were intercepted by the air defense systems, but the debris caused fires and other damage.
The Russians have changed the timing of bombardments, the combination of weapons used and the trajectories of missiles and drones, lately flying them low along riverbeds and through valleys to avoid detection, Ukrainian officials say.
Marc Santora and Victoria Kim contributed reporting.
