Russian barrage targets Kyiv, Ukrainian strike destroys school

A Russian air attack has bombarded Kyiv in the latest attack on the Ukrainian capital.
Ukraine’s air defence units destroyed dozens of cruise and ballistic missiles early on Monday morning, the city’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.
Meanwhile, authorities in the Russian region of Belgorod said a Ukrainian attack destroyed a childcare facility, as the warring pair continue to swap air strikes.
Ukrainian forces said that they destroyed 22 out of 35 missiles and 20 out of 23 attack drones over the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Despite Kyiv’s defensive action, the attack on the city produced a series of explosions, forcing residents into bomb shelters.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said emergency services were called to the Holosiivskyi and Solomianskyi districts. One person was reportedly injured by falling debris in Shevchenkivskyi district.
“There will be an answer for everything. The enemy will feel it,” the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, posted on his Telegram page following the attack.
Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s city military administration, said more than 10 cruise missiles, about 10 ballistic missiles and a drone fired at the Ukrainian capital and its suburbs were destroyed by Ukraine’s air defences.
Explosions also rang out in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to Ukrainian media. Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region, confirmed an early morning strike in Kharkiv’s Industrialnyi district. The strike set a residential building and several others on fire.
The Russian city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, said that several schools will move to online classes after a Ukrainian attack destroyed a childcare facility on Monday.
“It’s a bad morning for the Belgorod region,” Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a social media post. “A kindergarten in the city of Belgorod has been almost completely destroyed.”
School classes were set to resume on Monday following the summer vacation.
The previous day, Russia said that it had destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones targeting multiple regions in one of the biggest Ukrainian attacks of the war that has raged for about two years and six months.
Ukrainian forces have, meanwhile, continued their incursion into the Kursk region. Moscow’s forces have struggled to push them back so far, despite promises from the Kremlin to respond.