By Pavel Polityuk and Gleb Garanich
KYIV (Reuters) -Russia launched about 15 cruise missiles at Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday, the second attack in as many days, with air defence systems shooting all of them down, officials said, after air raid alerts blared over most of the country.
“As at the front, the plans of the aggressor failed,” Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.
Tuesday’s attacks – the fifth in May – came a day after Russia launched its biggest drone swarm yet in a renewed air campaign unleashed 10 days ago after a lull since early March.
It also came on Russia’s Victory Day, one its most commemorated public holidays, marking the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
“(They) try to kill as many civilians as possible – on this day,” Popko said.
He said that according to preliminary information there were no casualties in the attack that was carried out with cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea region.
Falling debris fell on a house in the Holosiivskyi district in the southwest of Kyiv, Kyiv’s Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on his Telegram messaging channel, adding there were no casualties or much damage.
In the often-targeted Shevchenkivskyi district of central Kyiv debris was found on a road.
“Kyiv stood up again and will stand up in the future!” Popko said.
(Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Wiriting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
