By Pavel Polityuk, Valentyn Ogirenko and Serhiy Karazy
KYIV (Reuters) -Russia’s early morning missile attack on Kyiv killed at least one civilian, injured three, and sparked several fires throughout the city, Ukrainian officials said.
“Russia carried out a missile strike on Kyiv and the Kyiv region,” Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
“This is how (Vladimir) wants the war to end.”
Prospects for renewed peace negotiations to end the war that Russia launched on Ukraine nearly three years ago have increased after U.S. President Donald Trump said that he had been in contact with Kyiv and Putin. Zelenskiy also said on Tuesday that Kyiv will soon hold talks with U.S. officials.
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that at least one person was killed and three injured, including a 9-year-old child, as a result of the attack and emergency services were called to at least four districts of the Ukrainian capital.
The military administration said that fires broke out at several residential and non-residential buildings.
Air raid alerts were imposed only at the start of the attack at around 0227 GMT. It was not immediately clear what missiles were used, but the late launch of air raid alerts suggests they were difficult to detect by radar.
Reuters’ witnesses reported hearing a series of explosions in what sounded like air defence systems in operation.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, Pavel Polityuk, Valentyn Ogirenko and Serhiy Karazy in Kyiv; writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
