Russia rocks Kyiv with missiles, drones in broad bombardment, Ukraine's military says

Loud explosions rocked Ukraine's capital Kyiv early on Monday as Russia launched a barrage of missiles, sparking fires and damaging homes and infrastructure, officials said.

The air force said it had destroyed 22 out of 35 missiles and 20 out of 23 attack drones. Those included nine ballistic missiles and 13 cruise missiles in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Air raid alerts soundedacross Ukraine for nearly two hours before the air force declared the skies clear at 6:30 a.m. local time. Neighbouring NATO member Poland activated Polish and allied aircraft to keep its airspace safe during the attacks.

The broad bombardment, a week after Russia unleashed its largest air attack on Ukraine since full-scale war began early in 2022, coincided with the first day back at school for many children.

"It was supposed to be school today," said Alina, standing in the courtyard of a school.

"We were asleep and woke up to a bang," said her friend Amina.

A boiler house at a Kyiv water plant was partially damaged as was the entrance to a metro station doubling as a bomb shelter in the Svyatoshynksyi district, Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram, though the station still operates.

The district is home to a cluster of universities and schools.

The attack injured at least two people, Klitschko said. Cars were set ablaze across the city as well as a non-residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district, he said.

Emergency services rushedto several locations, includingtheSvyatoshynksyi, Holosiivskyi, and Solomyanskyi districts,where debris hadfallenfrom destroyed missiles.

Solomyanskyi is home to a major train station and Kyiv's main airport. The historic neighbourhood of Svyatoshynksyi is on the city's western edge, while Holosiivskyi is in its southwest.

An Islamic centre was badly damaged in the attack, Crimean Tatar leader Refat Chubarov said on Telegram.

Reuterswitnesses in Kyiv heard a series of loud explosions in what sounded like the work of air defence units, some in the central area.

Last Monday, Russia fired more than 200 missiles and drones at Ukraine, killing seven people and striking energy facilities nationwide in what Kyiv called the war's "most massive" attack.

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Attacks on Belgorod disrupt school, governor says

Meanwhile, some kindergartens will shut for a week in the Russian city of Belgorod near Ukraine's border while several schools will hold online classes after a Kyiv attack destroyed a child-care facility on Monday, the region's governor said.

"It's a bad morning for the Belgorod region," Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkovsaid in a post on social network VKontakte the day classes were set to resume after the summer vacation.

"A kindergarten in the city of Belgorod has been almost completely destroyed."

After the attack, authorities decided that several schools in the city's large district of Kharkovskaya Gora would hold classes online, while kindergartens would be shut for a week, Gladkov said.

Russia's air defence units destroyed one Ukraine-launched drone overnight, the DefenceMinistry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Ukrainian forces have long subjected the city of Belgorod and nearby districts to shelling and other attacks. Kyiv says its attacks target infrastructure key to Moscow's war efforts.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the 30-month-old war unleashed by Moscow's invasion of its smaller neighbour.

On Sunday, Gladkov said Ukraine's shelling killed one person and injured more than a dozen in the region, the administrative centre of which is the city of Belgorod.