Russia pounds Kyiv with ballistic missiles in escalating air war

KYIV, July 19: Russia fired two dozen ballistic missiles at Kyiv overnight on Sunday, killing one person and wounding 16, in an ever-escalating air war that is taking an increasing civilian toll on both sides.
The latest bombardment highlights a dual challenge for Ukraine in its fifth year of war. It is facing intensifying Russian missile attacks alongside rare domestic political instability triggered by a sudden wartime shakeup of its defence leadership.

In the morning, AFP journalists in Kyiv saw charred apartment blocks with windows blown out and mangled, overturned cars.

"The missiles just kept coming one after another, the explosions were powerful, it was horrible," 47-year-old Kyiv resident GannaZagorodnia told AFP.

"I thought that life was just about to end."

In a statement on social media, Ukraine's President VolodymyrZelensky said that "overnight, Russia carried out one of its largest ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv," launching more than 40 missiles, 25 of them ballistic.

Zelensky added that one person was killed and 16 others wounded in the attack, which police said targeted six districts.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, afternoon Russian strikes killed four and wounded 20 at a post warehouse in Kharkiv, the country's eastern second-biggest city, said local military governor Oleg Syniegubov.

In the Black Sea city of Odesa, a teenager was killed and 12 were wounded, including a two-year-old child, after a Russian attack on an amusement park, said governor Oleg Kiper.�"AFP