Russia fires missiles on Kyiv in rare daytime attack

Russia fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv on Monday, sending panicked residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital following overnight strikes.

A series of explosions rang out in Kyiv as Russia targeted the city for the second time in 24 hours.

The latest barrages landed as the Ukrainian capital was still recovering from an overnight Saturday drone attack, the biggest since Russia's invasion began in February last year.

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AFP journalists heard at least 10 explosions from around 11:10 am local time (0810 GMT) in Kyiv, starting just a few minutes after an air raid warning sounded.

Authorities later said Ukrainian air defences had downed all the Russian missiles launched against the Kyiv region.

One injured man was hospitalised, they said.

Men help a woman to be evacuated from an apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Reuters

"A total of 11 missiles were fired: 'Iskander-M' and 'Iskander-K' from a northerly direction," Ukraine's armed forces chief Valery Zaluzhny said, adding: "All the targets were destroyed by air defences."

On Tuesday morning, Moscow's mayor said Russia's capital had been targeted by a rare drone attack, but only "minor" damage had been caused and no casualties were reported.

"This morning, at dawn, a drone attack caused minor damage to several buildings. All the city's emergency services are on the scene ... no one has been seriously injured so far," Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

Kyiv's parliament adopted on Monday a sanctions package against Russian ally Tehran, a day after Ukraine said Moscow used Iranian Shahed drones in the largest UAV attack on the capital since the start of the invasion.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called Monday "a very long day" in an evening address to Ukrainians, saying "Russia wants to go to the end on the path of evil" with its attacks.

A woman with a dog looks at her apartment building heavily damaged in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Reuters

"The world must see that terror loses. When the Patriots in the hands of Ukrainians ensure a hundred percent shooting down of any Russian missiles, terror loses," Zelensky said.

Kyiv received its first shipments of the American-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system in April, and US President Joe Biden on Monday suggested more aid was to come.

Asked about Russia's fierce attacks on Kyiv, Biden told reporters, "It's not unexpected," adding: "That's why we've got to continue to give Ukraine all that it needs."

Kyiv has been preparing an offensive, although its timing and focus have been the subject of months of speculation.

Agence France-Presse