Russia Strikes Kyiv, Killing 3 in Another Early Morning Attack

Russia targeted the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, yet again in the early hours of Thursday, killing three people, including at least one child. Air raid sirens and loud explosions throughout the city awoke residents worn out by a month of relentless attacks.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said on the Telegram messaging app that an additional 14 people were injured. The deaths and injuries were probably caused by debris from air defense systems shooting down incoming attacks, he said. Local officials initially said two children were among the dead; they later said one child was killed and another was injured.

Later in the morning, Ukraine’s general staff headquarters said Kyiv had been attacked by a volley of 10 Iskander ballistic missiles, and that air defense systems had shot all of them down.

The city’s military administration said some of the debris fell on a children’s clinic and that there were fires and damage in three districts of the city.

It was yet another night that Kyiv’s 3.6 million residents were jolted out of bed and sent scurrying for cover. The overnight attack early Thursday left very little time for residents to take shelter, with antimissile defenses colliding with missiles just six minutes after the air alarm sounded, the Kyiv military administration said.

Throughout May, residents were dogged by 17 waves of attacks coming at all hours, including by drone, and ballistic and hypersonic missile.

While Kyiv has been attacked since the first days of the war, the pace and intensity of the assaults over the past month have been jarring even for civilians now used to spending hours in bomb shelters and sleepless nights huddled in corridors. Thursday’s strikes seemed to suggest the campaign would continue into June.

On Wednesday, in a speech marking International Children’s Day, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said at least 483 Ukrainian children had been killed since the start of the full-scale war and that untold others had had their rights to a safe environment, education and health care violated by Russia’s invasion.

“For 15 months, Russian aggression and terror have been destroying not just buildings, but fundamental human rights — the fundamental rights of our children,” he said.

The week started with a rare daytime attack on the capital, when missiles roared into Kyiv shortly after 11 a.m. Monday and sent schoolchildren running in fear. Every missile was intercepted by the air defense systems, but their debris caused fires and other damage.

Russian forces have changed the timing of bombardments, the combination of weapons used and the trajectories of missiles and drones, lately flying them low along riverbeds and through valleys to avoid detection, Ukrainian officials say.

Marc Santora contributed reporting.