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Medics carry a wounded local resident at a site of an apartment building damaged during a Russian missile strike in Kyiv. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
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Russian attack on Kyiv injures dozens
A Russian missile attack overnight targeting the Ukrainian capital damaged a children’s hospital, with Kyiv’s mayor reporting at least 51 people injured in the “enemy attack.”
Ukraine’s air defence systems downed all 10 ballistic missiles targeting the capital at about 3 a.m, it said on Telegram.
Falling debris caused injuries and destruction in four of Kyiv’s districts along the Dnipro River, which cuts through the capital. Debris hit several residential buildings in the Dniprovskyi district, injuring at least 51 people, including six children, officials said.
“As a result of the enemy’s night missile attack [on] the capital’s Dniprovsky district, an apartment building was damaged,” Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on social media, Reuters reports.
Windows and entrances were also shattered by debris at a children’s hospital in the Dniprovskyi district, but based on initial assessments, there were no casualties, Klitschko said.
Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on Telegram. The district’s water supply was also damaged.
It was Russia’s second missile assault on Kyiv this week.Ballistic missiles targeted Kyiv early on Monday and injured four people.
The attack came as:
US president Joe Biden warned the Republicans hat they would give Russia a“Christmas gift” if they failed to provide additional military aid to hat they would give Russia a
“Christmas gift” if they failed to provide additional military aid to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy had visited Washington on Tuesday to make an impassionaied plea to Congress to approve additional aid to fight Russia’s invasion.
In a joint press conference with Zelenskiy, Biden said: “Russian loyalists in Moscow celebrated when Republicans voted to block Ukraine’s aid last week. The host of a Kremlin-run show said: ‘Well-done Republicans, that’s good for us.’”
Good morning and welcome to our blog. I’m Caroline Davies and I will be keeping you up to date with the Ukraine related news over the next few hours. You can get in touch on [email protected].
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We are continuing with our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
A Russian missile attack targeting the Ukrainian capital has damaged a children’s hospital, with Kyiv’s mayor reporting at least 51 people injured in the “enemy attack”.
“As a result of the enemy’s night missile attack [on] the capital’s Dniprovsky district, an apartment building was damaged,” Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on social media.
Fifteen residents were evacuated and Klitschko said a children’s hospital was also damaged in the attack.
In Washington, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has had a fairly cool reception from Republicans in Washington, as he pleaded for money to help fight Russia. The US president, Joe Biden, warned that blocking the aid would play into Moscow’s hands.
Here are the latest developments:
US president Joe Biden warned Republicans they would give Russia a “Christmas gift” if they failed to provide additional military aid to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose meeting with top lawmakers concluded without a commitment for more support.
Zelenskiy travelled to Washington to plead for money to back Ukraine in its war with Russia, but he faced a sceptical reception from key Republican lawmakers. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, would not agree to support Biden’s request to give Ukraine $61.4bn, with objectors insisting on White House concessions on border security as a condition for a deal.
Biden announced an additional $200m military aid package and, amid concerns that the war had reached a stalemate, insisted that Ukraine has made significant progress. “I will not walk away from Ukraine, and neither will the American people,” Biden said.
Moscow said it was watching developments closely. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, said that “tens of billions of dollars” already provided by Washington had failed to turn the tide of war and that more money would make little difference.
Five people were injured and buildings damaged by debris from destroyed missiles in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said on Wednesday. The mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said on the Telegram messaging app that residents from one building were being evacuated and emergency services were working on putting out several fires started by the falling missile debris.
A declassified US intelligence report assessed that the Ukraine war has cost Russia 315,000 dead and injured troops, or nearly 90% of the personnel it had when the conflict began, a source familiar with the intelligence said on Tuesday. The report also assessed that Moscow’s losses in personnel and armoured vehicles to Ukraine’s military have set back Russia’s military modernisation by 18 years, the source said.
Ukraine’s biggest mobile network operator, Kyivstar, said it was the target of a major cyber-attack on Tuesday morning that temporarily knocked out its cellular and internet signal. The cyber-attack affected the air raid alert system in more than 75 settlements in the Kyiv region, the regional military administration said.
Poland will demand the full mobilisation of the free world to help Ukraine, the newly appointed prime minister, Donald Tusk, said. He said: “We will demand full mobilisation of the west to help Ukraine. I can no longer listen to politicians who talk about being tired of the situation in Ukraine.”
Russian forces in southern Ukraine have “advanced considerably” around the village of Novopokrovka in the Zaporizhzhia region, Moscow’s occupational authorities have said. “Our units have advanced significantly forward north-east of Novopokrovka,” the Moscow-installed head of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, wrote on Telegram.
Europeans are generally open to the idea of Ukraine joining the EU, despite the costs and risks, but lukewarm at best about the bloc’s prospective enlargement to also take in Georgia and countries in the western Balkans, according to a survey.
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Letting Ukraine into the EU will reinforce, not undermine, Europe’s security
Europeans open to Ukraine joining EU, survey shows before key summit
