Editor’s Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Multiple explosions rocked kyiv on October 18 and again early on October 19, Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported, as Russia launched successive ballistic missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
Unlike the attack the previous evening, air raid alerts and warnings from the Ukrainian Air Force on Telegram were broadcast before the explosions were heard, warning residents of the threat.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that one of the capital’s metro stations, located on the left bank of the Dnipro River, was damaged during the October 19 attack.
The debris also damaged railway tracks and metro power rails near the station, Klitschko said.
In Solomyanskyi district, debris hit the first floor of a 25-story residential building.
Debris also affected a non-residential building located in another location. Emergency services were dispatched to both sites, the mayor said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the latest attack.
Previously, residents had little warning before the missile attack. The explosions were simultaneous with the sound of air raid sirens, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground.
Telephone alerts went off moments before the explosions, while street sirens began “screaming during the explosions,” editor-in-chief Olga Rudenko reported.
A medical center in the Desnianskyi district was hit during the October 18 strike, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported. Another building was hit in the Dniprovskyi district.
Emergency services were dispatched to the sites of the October 18 attacks, the mayor said. The death of a 21-year-old woman was reported, with no information yet available on the total number of victims or the extent of the damage.
The Oct. 18 ballistic missile strike came just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky said the United States had resumed intelligence sharing with Ukraine about Russian missile launches.
The president’s announcement came as a relief, after kyiv suffered “massive explosions” on October 12, when five Russian S-400 missiles struck the Ukrainian capital. Air raid sirens and mobile alerts only sounded after the attack.
The October 12 attack came after the United States threatened to withhold intelligence from Ukraine unless kyiv stopped attacking Russian refineries, sources told the Kyiv Independent.
A senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that the October 18 missile attack followed a similar pattern.
“The warning about a ballistic threat was only issued after the strike had already taken place,” the official said. “They’re planning something again.”
It may be common for Russian high-speed ballistic missiles to strike with very little advance warning. kyiv-based independent journalist Kateryna Denisova said she had about three minutes to take cover between receiving the mobile alert and the first explosions, which is “usual when there is a ballistic missile threat.”
Ukrainian officials have previously explained that satellite monitoring of launch sites can be vulnerable to transmission delays. Bad weather can also cause interference with satellites of the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), a surveillance network that U.S. forces use to monitor Russian launch sites.
But the senior official who spoke to the kyiv Independent said that explanation was unlikely.
“This has never happened before… but now we are seeing ‘bad weather’ three times in a row,” the official said.
“When nothing is on any channel…well, we understand.”
Gn world
