By Sergiy Karazy and Valentyn Ogirenko
KYIV (Reuters) – Russia’s second missile assault on Kyiv this week injured at least 34 people and damaged homes and a children’s hospital, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded in Washington for more help for his country.
Ukraine’s air defence systems downed all missiles targeting the capital about 3 a.m. (0100 GMT), Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app. The full scale of the attack was not immediately clear.
Falling debris caused injuries and destruction in three of Kyiv’s districts on the eastern side of the Dnipro River that cuts through the capital, officials said.
Windows and entrances were shattered by debris at a children’s hospital in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district, but based on initial assessments, there were no casualties, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
Debris also hit several residential buildings in the Dniprovskyi district, injuring at least 34 people, with 15 requiring hospitalisation, including two children, Klitschko added. The district’s water supply was also damaged.
The specific weapons Russia used in the attack were not immediately known. It followed a salvo of ballistic missiles that targeted Kyiv early on Monday and injured four people.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden warned Republicans that they would give Russia a “Christmas gift” if they failed to provide additional military aid to Zelenskiy, whose meeting with a top U.S. lawmaker concluded without a commitment for more support.
There was no comment from Russia about the attack on Wednesday, which also damaged buildings in Kyiv’s Desnyanskyi and Darnitskyi districts.
Both Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians in the nearly 22-month-long war that Russia launched against its neighbour in February 2022.
Popko said 15 people, including four children, were evacuated from a residential building in the Dniprovskyi district after debris hit a building and nearby cars, causing a fire.
He added that most injuries came from windows blown out by the blast wave.
“There are many injured,” Popko said, suggesting that the number of wounded may rise.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Tom Hogue and Gerry Doyle)
