CNN
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Ukraine's capital came under its first heavy missile attack in six weeks early Thursday, just hours after a visit to the city by U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
More than 25,000 people took shelter in the city's subway stations as the attack continued, with videos and images shared on social media showing crowds crammed into basements reminiscent of the early days of the war. It was reflected.
Officials said Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles into the Kiev region, all of which were shot down. The test will confirm the exact type of missile fired, but an Air Force statement suggests the ballistic missile may have come from North Korea.
Authorities said about a dozen people were injured by falling debris. There were no reports of deaths.
Alina Smutko/Reuters
People take shelter inside a metro station in Kiev during a missile barrage.
Valentina Ivanivna, an 80-year-old resident of the Podil district in central Kyiv, told CNN she woke up at 5 a.m. to the sound of a loud explosion shattering her windows.
“I don't know if it was a missile or what, but now there's a hole in place of a window. I'm fine, but there's no window in the kitchen and living room. I have another “I slept in my bedroom behind the wall, so I was protected from the debris,” she said.
Anastasia Shulha showed CNN inside her flower shop, where the main window was blown out and the front door was damaged.
“This is actually the second time my store has been attacked. The last time was late last spring,” she said.
She added, pointing to the broken store door. She said: “Everything is wide open and anyone can come in. You have to stay here until the windows and doors are replaced.”
Ruslan Kravchenko, head of the Kyiv region's military administration, said there was no damage to critical infrastructure or residential buildings, but photos suggested at least one close call.
Videos and images show a large crater several meters away from a high-rise residential building. One image shows a nearby car covered in dirt kicked up by the crash.
Alina Smutko/Reuters
Rescue workers work at the site of a building damaged by a Russian missile attack.
More than 25,000 people, including 3,000 children, took shelter in the city's metro station until after 6 a.m., when the air raid warning was lifted, Kiev city authorities said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the attack was a reminder of why he begs allies for more military support.
“Russian terrorists do not have missiles that can bypass Russia's defenses. [US-made] PATRIOT and other world-leading systems.Now we need this protection here in Ukraine too [..] “This is quite possible if our partners have enough political will,” he wrote on social media.
An Air Force statement suggested the ballistic missile was either a North Korean-made Iskander M-class missile KN-23, or a Russian-made Kh-47M2, commonly known as Kinzhal. Ukrainian officials said last month that Russia had used missiles from North Korea dozens of times to attack Ukraine.
A Ukrainian defense official told CNN it was clear from the missile trajectories that all but one of the missiles were targeting facilities at the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Complex.
The Defense Intelligence Agency, commanded by Kirillo Budanov, carried out a series of high-profile attacks against Russian targets, including numerous attacks on naval vessels belonging to Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
The directorate is also responsible for coordinating several units of Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine. Most recently, these groups have been involved in cross-border raids and drone and artillery attacks on Russia's Belgorod and Kursk oblasts, which border Ukraine to the north.
Some of these warplanes held a press conference in Kiev on Thursday, which followed the missile barrage, but which had been announced earlier in the week in retaliation for the attack on the Ukrainian capital. , said it had launched a drone attack on Belgorod.
One of the volunteers, Oleksey Baranovsky of the Russian Freedom Corps, said their recent actions had succeeded in thwarting a Russian attack plan planned to coincide with the Russian presidential election.
Another Russian volunteer, Denis Nikitin, said: “We were able to open a second front. We will shift the war effort into enemy territory. “We were able to reduce the pressure on the Kremlin's military machine.”
U.S. and South Korean officials have accused North Korea in recent months of supplying Russia with missiles and other military equipment.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a White House briefing in early January that Russia fired North Korean-made missiles toward Ukraine on December 30 and January 2.
Kirby and analysts who spoke to CNN said the introduction of North Korean weapons into the Ukraine war would have an impact as far as 7,500 kilometers (4,600 miles) east of the Korean peninsula. “This is a significant and worrying development in North Korea's support for Russia,” Kirby said.
On February 26, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said North Korea's military factories producing weapons and artillery shells for Russia were “operating at full capacity.” In return, Russia provides North Korea with food and other necessities, he said.
Viacheslav Latynsky/Reuters
Bomb squad members work next to part of the missile.
On Wednesday, Sullivan told reporters in Kyiv that he was confident that the U.S. House of Representatives would eventually approve additional military aid to Ukraine, even though it had been blocked in Congress for months. He said there was.
Last month, the U.S. Senate approved a supplemental bill that would allow for $60 billion in military aid, but House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to bring the bill up for a vote. Current discussions on Capitol Hill are reportedly focused on getting at least some of the aid approved in the form of loans, which could win support from House Republicans.
“We are confident that we can get strong bipartisan votes in the House of Representatives for a Ukraine aid package that will allow us to get that money out the door.” [..] It's already taking too long…I'm not going to predict exactly when this will be completed,'' Sullivan said Wednesday of the first visit by a senior White House official to Ukraine in six months.
The attack in Kiev took place on the same day as a NATO military delegation visited the Ukrainian capital for the first time since the start of Russia's invasion in 2022.
A delegation led by Admiral Rob Bauer, Chairman of the Allied Military Committee, attended the annual Kiev Security Forum and met with President Zelenskiy and Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander Oleksandr Shirushkyi.
In his speech, Bauer called the visit “a testament to the fact that NATO and Ukraine are closer than ever.”
“This war is about President Putin's fear of something far more powerful than any physical weapon on earth: democracy,” he said. “If we have real democratic rights, the Russian people will soon aspire to them,” he added. ”
Bauer also said that Ukraine had “fundamentally changed many aspects of modern warfare” by using “a combination of Soviet-style equipment and modern Western materiel.”
The official warned Ukraine against becoming “too pessimistic about 2024,” stressing that “pessimists do not win wars.”
“There's nothing you can't do. All you need is our help. NATO allies and many countries around the world are providing unprecedented support to Ukraine, which is making a huge difference. “There is,” he said.
Zelenskiy described Bauer's visit as a “strong signal of support” to Ukrainian society.
Additional reporting by Mariya Knight and Yulia Kesayeva