Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv hit with ballistic missiles, as civilians killed by drone strikes in Russia

28 Jun, 01:42. AU edition

People buying food at a Kyiv market surrounded by buildings and cars damaged by attacks from Russia — Shoppers at a Kyiv market a week ago. The capital is reportedly again under attack. Russia has targeted Ukraine with near-daily attacks since it invaded in 2022. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Latest attack follows civilian deaths on both sides of Russia-Ukraine border on Saturday. What we know on day 1,586

A Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv early Sunday has wounded at least two people, the city’s administration said not long after it had warned residents to take shelter.“Air defence forces are operating in the capital. Remain in shelters!”, the capital’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. Explosions and several flashes in the sky have been reported. “As of now, the number of wounded in the overnight attack has risen to two,” head of the local military administration, Tymur Tkachenko said in a post on Telegram. Several fires broke out in the Darnytsky district as a result of the attack, Tkachenko said earlier.
The attack follows civilian deaths on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine border on Saturday. Russian strikes in Dnipropetrovsk in central-eastern Ukraine and the northern Sumy region killed two people, while Ukraine launched attacks on Volgograd and Belgorod in Russia’s southwest, and Horlivka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which is controlled by Moscow. Three people were killed in the attacks, regional authorities said.
In the Russian border region of Bryansk, ⁠a Ukrainian drone strike on Saturday killed two people in their car in a village near the border, ⁠the region’s acting governor Yegor Kovalchuk said on Telegram. Russia’s defence ministry, quoted by Russian ‌news agencies, said ‌124 Ukrainian drones had been downed over Russian regions over ‌a period extending from 8 am to 8pm.
A “massive” Ukrainian drone strike reportedly also hit in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia, killing one person, wounding another and causing a fire in an oil refinery. Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Sunday that several houses were also damaged by falling debris. “Krasnodar region came under a massive enemy drone attack... Sadly, one person was killed,” Kondratyev said in a post on Telegram, adding that “one person was wounded and received the necessary assistance on site”. He said a “fire also broke out at an oil refinery in the city, and a power line and gas pipe were damaged”.
More than 40 drone strikes and artillery fire had killed one person and injured one near Nikopol, according to the governor of the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine, Oleksandr Ganzha. The town, lying ⁠on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, is a frequent Russian target.
Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday he would resign within weeks and the country would hold early presidential and parliamentary elections, after 18 months of anti-government protests about government corruption and media censorship. Serbia is a candidate to join the European Union but it is under pressure from the West to align with EU sanctions on Russia, a step Belgrade has so far declined to take. It must also improve its rule of law, including conditions for fair elections, and root out corruption and organised crime.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko held talks on Friday, according to the Kremlin, and discussions were expected to have focused on the war in Ukraine. Meeting at Putin’s Valdai residence in northwestern Russia, the two leaders addressed trade and economic cooperation, the implementation of joint projects and issues of ‌regional security. The meeting follows a warning earlier this month from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Lukashenko to remove equipment from Belarus used by Russia in its attacks on Ukraine.