Several killed in Russian missile attack on Ukraine

By Stefan J. Bos

Near a large crater in a Kyiv neighborhood, emergency teams struggled to douse flames in a damaged building.

Earlier smoke could be seen as missiles were fired at Ukraine's capital, injuring several people.

However, Ukraine's air force commander, Mykola Oleschuk, said all 31 Russian missiles targeting Kyiv were shot down. Among them were two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, however, that rocket fragments fell on a kindergarten in Sviatoshynskyi district while a block of flats in another area was on fire.

He said that at least ten people were injured, including an 11-year-old girl.

As the attacks unfolded, several residents were evacuated while many hid in Kyiv's subways, including a man with his beloved cat as a baby cried nearby.  

Outside Kyiv, a Russian missile reportedly hit an industrial area in Ukraine's northern city of Kharkiv on Wednesday, killing at least five people.

Officials said at least eight others were injured while others were missing as the missile caused a significant fire in a printing house.

Yet Russia was also attacked. Officials said Ukrainian drones operated by Ukraine's military intelligence agency hit the Engels airbase deep inside Russian territory early on Wednesday.

There have also been several attacks involving Ukraine-backed militias in border areas inside Russia.

As fighting escalates, Russian officials say they plan to evacuate about 9,000 children from a border region because it is being shelled continuously by Ukraine.

The local governor, Vyacheslev Gladkov, said the children would be moved from the Belgorod region farther east, away from the Ukraine border.

The announcement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin wants to create a buffer zone to help protect border regions from long-range Ukrainian strikes and cross-border raids.

There were no indications that the war, now in its third year, would end soon. On Wednesday, the West pledged even more military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in Kyiv that the Netherlands provides Ukraine with 350 million euros or 380 million dollars for F-16 fighter jet ammunition and advanced reconnaissance drones.

The European Union's executive Commission said it had disbursed the first 4.5 billion euros, or about 5 billion dollars, of support under the EU's new multi-billion euro Ukraine Facility.

EU leaders were also to discuss a plan on Thursday to use up to 3 billion euros a year of profits from frozen Russian financial assets to buy arms for Ukraine.

Ukraine says it could produce 2 million drones a year—double the existing production rate—with extra Western support.

However, with more fighting expected, the death toll keeps rising in a war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people, many of them soldiers.

Separately, the United Nations has accused Russia of torturing and arbitrarily detaining people in occupied Ukraine, creating a "climate of fear."

The UN report also said Russia tried to suppress Ukrainian identity among children, replacing the curriculum in schools with a Russian one that sought to "justify" Moscow's invasion.