Russian forces have attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with drones and missiles, hitting residential buildings, triggering a fire in a hotel on a central boulevard and injuring at least five.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said the hotel roof was on fire. Pictures posted online showed a fire burning out of control at the top of the building on the central Shevchenko Boulevard.
In a later post on Telegram, Klitschko said Kyiv had come under ballistic missile attack, with five people injured in one of the central districts. Multiple explosions were heard in Kyiv, a Reuters witness said.
People were trapped in a damaged nine-storey residential building and a roof of another high-rise apartment building was on fire, Klitschko added.
Other pictures on unofficial Telegram channels showed residents crowding into underground stations.
Nato member Poland scrambled fighter jets as a preventive measure, the Polish Armed Forces said in a post on X.
“These actions are of a preventive nature and are aimed at securing and protecting the airspace, especially in areas adjacent to the threatened regions,” the post said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had earlier warned that intelligence reports showed an overnight attack on the country was likely and said he was cutting short his stay in Dublin, which he visited for the start of Ireland’s six-month term in charge of the rotating presidency of the EU.