This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
A massive wave of Russian missiles targeting Kyiv was largely repelled by the air-defense systems of the Ukrainian capital early on March 21, but several people were wounded by the falling debris while extensive damage was reported in parts of the capital.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 10 people, including an 11-year-old girl, were wounded in two of the city’s neighborhoods — six in the Shevchenkivskiy district and two in the Svyatoshynskiy district — and two of them were hospitalized.
Debris from downed Russian missiles fell on residential buildings, businesses, a kindergarten, and vehicles in several areas of Kyiv, Klitschko said.
A transformer substation and several residential buildings caught fire, prompting evacuations, he said.
Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv administration, said two more people were wounded in the Brovariy and Vyshhorod districts of the capital, where at least 24 private houses were destroyed. Popko said the Russian attack lasted three hours, with the missiles approaching the capital simultaneously from different directions.
An air-raid alert was declared for the entire territory of Ukraine for the duration of the attack.
A missile strike on the southern city of Mykolayiv killed one woman and injured six when it hit an industrial site, Ukraine’s emergency services agency said.
“Such terror continues every day and night,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said later on March 21, calling on the West to deliver air defense systems.
“It is possible to put an end to it through global unity…. Russian terrorists do not have missiles capable of bypassing Patriot and other leading world systems,” he said on Telegram.
“This protection is required in Ukraine now. From Kyiv to Kharkiv, Sumy to Kherson, and Odesa to the Donetsk region. This is entirely possible if our partners demonstrate sufficient political will.”
The Ukrainian military said Russia launched 31 missiles at the capital from 11 Tu-95MS strategic bombers that took off from the Russian cities of Volgodonsk and Engels.
“The enemy attacked [Kyiv] with two Iskander-M ballistic missiles as well as 29 Kh-101 cruise missiles,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement.
“All enemy missiles were shot down in the Kyiv region,” Commander Mykola Oleschuk said.
The latest wave of Russian attacks came a day after five people were killed as a result of Russian shelling of the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Also on March 20, Ukrainian intelligence sources told RFE/RL that Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian air base that houses strategic bombers located near Engels in the Saratov region in an attack planned and executed by the Main Directorate of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “targets had been hit” and the results of the attack were being assessed, without disclosing what targets and how many had allegedly been hit.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on March 21 that its air-defense systems shot down 10 Vampire rockets launched by Ukraine at the border region of Belgorod.
The region’s largest sports and cultural facility, Belgorod Arena, was damaged in the attack, it said.
The claim could not be independently verified.
