Russia attacks Kyiv with ballistic missiles

Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital with drones and ballistic missiles before dawn on Saturday, officials said, killing at least three people in central kyiv as part of a broader attack targeting towns and villages in across the country.

Air raid alarms still sounded as emergency teams rushed to search for the dead and wounded – an eerily familiar routine in a country hit by relentless Russian bombing for nearly three years.

The Ukrainian Air Force said four ballistic missiles and 39 attack drones were used in the assault and that two of the ballistic missiles were shot down in the kyiv region. Although the city is the target of drone attacks almost every evening, ballistic missile attacks targeting the city are less frequent.

The pre-dawn attack caused a water pipe to break near the city center, sending water cascading into the streets around the dilapidated facade of the Lukianivska metro station. Nearby, smoke rose from a charred pickup truck with at least two charred bodies inside.

As a fire burned deep inside an industrial building across the street, some firefighters tried to remove debris from the storefront of a badly damaged McDonald’s. Others focused on the huge pieces of glass, debris and insulation covering the sidewalk outside the subway station — typically a place where residents seek safety in case of attacks.

As investigators roamed the street, searching the rushing water for shell fragments, shopkeepers tried to break through a police cordon.