Russia has said its military destroyed tanks donated by Ukraine’s allies and other armour in a barrage of missile strikes that shattered five weeks of eerie calm in Ukraine’s capital early on Sunday.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Ukrainian side.
In a post on the Telegram app, the Russian ministry said high-precision, long-range air-launched missiles were used to attack the outskirts of Kyiv and destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by eastern European countries and other armoured vehicles located in buildings of a car-repair business.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the missile strikes hit the Darnytski and Dniprovski districts in the city, adding that air raid sirens had gone off around the time of the blasts.
No deaths were reported, but one person was injured and taken to hospital.
The attack shattered a sense of calm in Kyiv, which had not seen similar strikes since the visit of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on April 28.
An acrid smell of smoke filled the air in the Darnystki district of eastern Kviv, with a billowing pillar of smoke rising in the sky. Soldiers and police blocked off a main road to the site. Smoke billowed from the charred and blackened wreckage of a warehouse-type structure.
Elsewhere, Russian forces continued their push in eastern Ukraine, with missile and air strikes carried out on cities and villages of the Luhansk region.
Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said on Telegram that “air strikes by Ka-52 helicopters were carried out in the areas of Girske and Myrna Dolyna, by Su-25 aircraft – on Ustynivka”, while Lysychansk was hit by a missile from the Tochka-U complex.
A total of 13 houses were damaged in Girske, and five in Lysychansk.
Another air strike was reported in the eastern city of Kramatorsk by its mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko. No-one was killed in the attack, he said, but two of the city’s enterprises suffered “significant damage”.
On Sunday morning, Ukraine’s General Staff accused Russian forces of using phosphorus munitions in the Kharkiv region and said Moscow continues to carry out missile and air strikes on military and civilian infrastructure, including in Kyiv.
The General Staff said in its morning update that the Russian troops used phosphorus munitions in the area of the Cherkaski Tyshky village in the Kharkiv region. The claim could not be independently verified.
The update also confirmed strikes on Kyiv, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday. It was not immediately clear from the statement which infrastructure facilities in Kyiv were hit.
The General Staff also said that Russian forces were continuing assault operations in Sievierodonetsk in the eastern Luhansk region, one of two key cities left to be captured there.
The Russians currently control the eastern part of the city, the update said, and are focusing on encircling Ukrainian forces in the area and “blocking off main logistical routes”.
In the Black Sea, the General Staff said, five naval-based Kalibr cruise missiles stand ready to be used.
