The day after the Russian government first commented on the Crimean Bridge explosion, major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, and Dnipro, have been subjected to massive rocket fire.
There are reports of casualties and injured persons. The exact figures are being verified.
Novaya Gazeta. Europe has collected all the information that we know about the strikes so far.
Local officials have reported new explosions in Kryvyi Rih (Dnipro region) and Kremenchuk (Poltava region).
Head of the Poltava regional administration Dmytro Lunin reported that two missiles had been taken down by air defence systems in the Kremenchuk district.
“Three people were injured by the falling debris of a Russian missile,” he wrote.
According to Kryvyi Rih mayor Oleksandr Vilkul, several explosions occurred in the city. Preliminary information suggests that the attacks were carried out by Iranian-made Shahed drones.
Strikes in central Kyiv: metro stations used as bomb shelters once again
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko has addressed the residents of the Ukrainian capital on Monday morning, reporting attacks on the Shevchenkivskyi and Solomyanskyi districts of the city. The city’s central streets have been cordoned off. Klitschko called on residents to remain in shelters until the air raid warning is lifted.
“Do not come to the city today unless it is an emergency. I am asking the same of the residents of the suburbs — don’t come to the capital today,” he said.
According to Rostyslav Smirnov, adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, eight people were killed in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv following the missile strike, and 24 were injured. The Ukrainian police specify that so far, the confirmed casualties in Kyiv are five killed and 12 injured.
The Kyiv emergency services told Hromadske news outlet that there are at least 20 people injured in the Ukrainian capital.
Ukrainian National Police spokesperson Maryana Reva has stated that as of now, there are confirmed reports of 10 people killed and 60 injured in the missile strikes on Ukraine.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko reports that five people were killed in the missile strikes on Kyiv, 51 residents were injured, and 42 were hospitalised.
The National Police of Ukraine have published the updated death toll in the missile strikes: 11 people were killed and 87 were injured. Head of the cyber crime division of the Ukrainian police Yuri Zaskoka, 41, is among those killed.
So far, it is reported that 70 facilities have been damaged in the attacks, including 29 critical infrastructure objects, 4 apartment buildings, 35 detached houses, and a school in Kyiv.
Photo: Ukraine’s National Police
Photo: Ukraine’s National Police
Klitschko also stated that several missiles had targeted “critical infrastructure objects”. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, published photographs of a playground and the Khanenko Museum in central Kyiv.
Ukraine’s culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko has stated that the Kyiv Philharmonic, the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum, and the Taras Shevchenko Museum were damaged in the attacks.
Photo: Oleksandr Tkachenko
Kyiv schools have suspended all classes, including online learning, Strana.ua reports, citing the children’s parents. Schools in other Ukrainian cities will switch to online learning until the end of the week, the country’s education ministry stated.
It is reported that a business centre in Kyiv was also damaged in the strike.
The so-called Klitschko bridge, a pedestrian bridge near the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People, was also targeted by the strikes. However, video footage published on social media shows that the bridge had withstood the attack.
The roof of the Kyiv railway station was damaged in the strikes, Ukrainian Railways reported.
The Kyiv metro suspended operations following the attacks. It is now being used as a bomb shelter.
The Kharkiv metro also suspended operations for technical reasons, the metro’s press service stated. Telegram channels report that land public transport routes have also been put on hold.
The Kharkiv mayor has reported that according to preliminary information, there were three strikes on the city. “There was a strike on an energy infrastructure object. In some districts of the city, there is no power or water supply,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Officials of the Poltava, Sumy and Khmelnytskyi regions of Ukraine also report power and water outages. Ukraine’s electricity transmission system operator Ukrenergo warned of possible power shortages in Ukrainian cities and villages following the strikes.
Zelensky’s statement
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has published a video address to Ukrainian citizens.
“The morning is tough. We are dealing with terrorists. Dozens of missiles, Iranian ‘Shaheds’. They have two targets. Energy facilities throughout the country. Kyiv region and Khmelnytskyi region, Lviv and Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk region, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy region, Kharkiv region, Zhytomyr region, Kirovohrad region, the south of the country. They want panic and chaos, they want to destroy our energy system. They are incorrigible.
The second target is people. Such a time and such goals were specially chosen to cause as much damage as possible.”
Photo: Zelensky’s address
The Ukrainian leader has confirmed that there are casualties in the strikes on Ukrainian cities. He called on citizens to remain in shelters.
Zelensky also stated that he and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had agreed to convene an emergency G7 meeting, where a speech by the Ukrainian leader is planned. He also held a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed the reinforcement of air defence systems and the need for a tough European and international response to the attacks.
According to Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhnyi, a total of 75 missiles have been launched on the territory of Ukraine. Over 40 of them have been downed by air defence systems.
Explosions have been reported in the Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions, in Ternopil, Lviv, and the Lviv region.
Head of Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region Vitaly Kim has stated that during the new wave of Russian attacks, 47 missiles have been launched on the territory of the region.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reports that as of now, 11 important infrastructure facilities have been damaged in eight regions of Ukraine and in Kyiv.
“We need to be ready for temporary power, water and communications outages,” he warned.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin and Belarus’ Alyaksandar Lukashenko agreed to deploy a joint regional group of forces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the missile strikes across Ukraine. “All this is taking place within the special military operation. As for these strikes, we need to wait for a comment from the Defence Ministry or address this question directly to the Defence Ministry,” Peskov said.
The Moldovan Foreign Ministry has stated that three Russian missiles launched in the direction of Ukraine this morning had violated the country’s airspace. Chisinau has summoned the Russian envoy to Moldova.
Yesterday, Putin and chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev commented on the Crimean Bridge explosion for the first time. Medvedev said that the only possible response to the “act of terrorism and diversion carried out by the criminal Kyiv regime” is “direct elimination of terrorists”. Putin deemed the incident “a terror attack against Russia’s essential civilian infrastructure” and accused the Ukrainian special services of being behind the attack.
On 8 October, Russian army general Sergey Surovikin was appointed “commander of the combined group of forces in the area of the special military operation”.
