An explosion of a missile is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, 7 February 2024;
Credit: Reuters /Gleb Garanich
KYIV (Reuters) - Russia launched several waves of missile strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during rush hour on the morning of Wednesday 7 February 2024, Ukrainian officials said, with falling debris from the downed weapons cutting off electricity to parts of the capital.
Several waves of blasts rocked Kyiv during the attack, the first in February, with air defence systems engaged in destroying the missiles, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.
At least two people were injured in Dniprovskyi district that lies along the Dnipro River, he added.
All of Ukraine was under air raid alert from around 06:00 (04:00 GMT), with Ukraine's Air Force warning on Telegram of a risk of Russian missile attacks across the country.
The first blasts were heard just before 07:00 in Kyiv.
"I was scared when air alerts were announced and we rushed here," Tetyana, 49, told Reuters in a bomb shelter in central Kyiv, while hugging her two-year-old granddaughter and a small dog.
"I hope they will shoot down all of them. I pray for our air defence."
The scale of the attack, which lasted several hours, was not immediately known. There was no immediate response from Russia's defence ministry to Reuters' request to comment.
Ukraine's largest private energy company, DTEK, said Dniprovskyi district was left partially without electricity. Klitschko said falling debris from a downed Russian missile damaged some power lines.
Oleh Synehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region in Ukraine's northeast, said Russian missiles struck non-residential infrastructure in Kharkiv city, the administrative centre of the region.
