Russian forces have launched ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the border region, killing at least nine people and wounding 33 others, officials said, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confronted a wave of domestic political turmoil.
Explosions rang out across several districts of Kyiv early Thursday, shaking buildings and setting off car alarms, according to the Kyiv Independent, a Ukrainian news outlet.
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The blasts hit the Sviatoshynskyi, Solomianskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts.
In the Solomianskyi district, a nine-storey residential building collapsed and caught fire following the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. He said that a children’s hospital in the same district was also damaged, with windows shattered and cars burning on the grounds.
“People are trapped” at another residential building, he continued, with parts of both Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts also without electricity.
Ukraine’s Emergency Services said at least eight people were killed and 33 others were wounded in the “massive attack” on the capital, with fires breaking out in residential buildings and at warehouses.
It said rescuers are at the scene of the attacks and have freed at least two people from the rubble of collapsed buildings.
An attack in the Brovary district of the broader Kyiv region killed one person and wounded another, Kyiv regional governor Tymur Tkachenko said.
“One industrial facility has been damaged. All relevant services are on site, working to extinguish the fire,” Tkachenko added.
Ukraine’s air force had warned of Russian “Kalibr” missiles in the vicinity of the village of Kagarlyk in the Kyiv region, heading towards the capital.
The attacks also prompted security responses in neighbouring NATO member states.
Poland’s military command said it had mobilised aircraft and activated air defences aimed at protecting Polish airspace, particularly in areas bordering Ukraine.
Romania’s defence ministry said radar systems detected aerial targets near the Ukrainian border overnight, prompting the scrambling of two Spanish fighter jets deployed on NATO missions and a Romanian air force helicopter.
The ministry said a drone entered Romanian airspace near Galati before crashing in an unpopulated area in Tulcea county.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said it shot down 726 Ukrainian UAVs between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning over several regions, as well as over the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.
A new defence minister
The strikes came a day after Ukraine’s parliament confirmed Yevhenii Khmara as the country’s new defence minister. Lawmakers approved his appointment 312-2, well above the 226 votes needed.
Khmara is a career intelligence official who rose through the ranks of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). He previously led its Alpha special operations unit, whose personnel have reportedly been linked to Operation Spiderweb, last year’s drone attack deep inside Russian territory.
Addressing parliament before the vote, Khmara pledged to “do everything to defend Ukraine, to reduce Russia’s war potential as much as possible, and to force the enemy into a just peace”. Zelenskyy called the confirmation a sign that “Ukraine needs more strength. And it will have it”.
Not everyone was convinced, however. Opposition lawmaker Solomiia Bobrovska said pulling Khmara from intelligence work was “a mistake”, even while praising him personally.
Khmara’s confirmation fills the vacancy left by former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. He was ousted in July after a public rupture with the armed forces commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, who was also replaced weeks later amid public pressure.
The rupture reverberated further when, a day before Khmara’s confirmation, Fedorov released a video calling for Ukraine to move towards holding elections, currently suspended under wartime law.
He argued that the country faces a “systemic crisis of governance”.
The political fallout spilled into the streets on Wednesday, as dozens of demonstrators rallied in Kyiv in support of Fedorov’s call.
“It’s like we are in a trap,” said one protester who only gave her first name, Emilia. “Because we have not had any elections. So the members of parliament, the people who are in the executive branch of power, they understand that, ‘hmm, I can sit here and do whatever I want’,” she told Al Jazeera.
Several others said they backed the idea of renewing the country’s leadership. But they were sceptical that a real vote could be held while the war continues.
Ukrainian law currently bars elections during wartime, and no major political figure has publicly pushed back on that since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.
Zelenskyy’s term ended in May 2024, but the country has postponed its presidential election while martial law remains in effect.
