Ukraine repels Russian missile & drone attack, civilians injured

Kyiv: Ukrainian officials said air defences shot down 20 Iranian - made drones fired by Russia mostly at the Kyiv region early Thursday, but wreckage fell on four districts of the capital, wounding two people and destroying several homes.

The latest barrage by the Kremlin's forces began shortly after midnight, and explosions shook different parts of the city.

Two people were hospitalised with shrapnel wounds, authorities said. In the capital, rescuers extinguished a fire in a 16-story building, as well as in a non-residential building, the Interior Ministry said. Debris also smashed into the frontage of a 25-story apartment building, it said.

Russian strikes have become a grim part of everyday life in Ukraine over the almost 17 months of the war. Meanwhile, a senior officer leading Russian forces against Kyiv's counteroffensive in southern Ukraine, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, was reportedly killed by a Ukrainian missile strike.

Tsokov died when the Ukrainian military struck the city of Berdyansk on Tuesday with UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, according to retired Gen. Andrei Gurulev, who commanded the 58th Army in the past and currently serves as a lawmaker.

Russia's Defense Ministry hasn't reported Tsokov's death. In the aftermath of the nighttime attack on Kyiv, Volodymyr Motus, a 22-yearold resident of the 25-story building, carefully picked his way across the floor of a destroyed apartment, his footsteps crunching shattered glass.

The mangled furniture was coated in a thick layer of dust.

“I was in my apartment and suddenly I heard a boom, that's all. Then the alarm went off and I went down to the shelter.” He said that some people were injured, but they were all alive. In May, Russia launched dozens of drones and missiles at Kyiv almost every night. (AP)