The Russians attacked Ukraine with a ballistic missile traveling at a hypersonic speed of 13,000 km/h. Bombings in Kyiv and the west of the country
Testing an Oresnik missile in Russia. PHOTO: east2west news / WillWest News / Profimedia
The entire territory of Ukraine was under air alert on the night of Thursday to Friday, in response to a Russian missile attack, with several victims being announced in Kiev by the authorities, inform AFP, Reuters and CNN.
Russia fired a barrage of missiles into Ukraine on Thursday night, killing at least four people in Kiev and hitting infrastructure in the country's west with a ballistic missile, authorities said, in the latest attack on the embattled country.
Nationally, the military launched a “missile alert across Ukraine,” citing ballistic missiles coming from the Kaspoutine Iar base, about 400 kilometers east of the border.
Authorities in the city of Lviv, located in the west of the country, announced several explosions and a ballistic missile attack on a critical infrastructure.
The missile “moved at a speed of about 13,000 kilometers per hour, following a ballistic trajectory,” a statement from the “Western” Air Command of the Air Force of Ukraine said.
According to the cited source, the type of missile will be determined after examining its components.
A speed of 13,000 kilometers per hour is about 10 times the speed of sound. One of the few projectiles capable of such speeds is Russia's Oreshnik missile, which Vladimir Putin has boasted is traveling at Mach 10. Russia first launched an Oreshnik missile over Ukraine in November 2024.
Russian drones attacked targets in Kiev early Friday, killing four people, injuring at least 19 and causing considerable damage to homes and infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said.
Timur Tkachenko, the head of the Ukrainian capital's military administration, and Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram that four people were killed in the attacks, which began just before midnight. Klitschko said 19 people were injured, 14 of whom were hospitalized.
The head of the regional military administration, Mykola Kalachnyk, stated that “the enemy is massively attacking Kiev with explosive drones.”
One of the victims, Klitschko said, was an emergency physician who had arrived at a suburban apartment hit by two successive drones. Four members of the same team were injured in that incident.
Two apartment buildings were hit on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, causing major damage, he said. In one building, the entire entrance was destroyed, and a tall building was badly damaged in a central district.
Klitschko said the attack “caused damage to critical infrastructure, with water supply interruptions in some neighborhoods.”
Both officials said fires broke out in several neighborhoods of the city. An air alert was in effect in the capital for five hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned late on Thursday of the risk of an imminent “massive Russian attack” after Moscow rejected a European plan to deploy a multinational force to Ukraine after a possible end to the war.
