Russian missile attack kills one, cuts heating
The strike is Moscow’s response to Kyiv’s use of US missile against Russia.

A woman walks among rubbles at the site of a missile attack in Kyiv on December 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
ROMAN PILIPEY / AFP
KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Russian missiles targeted the Ukrainian capital Kyiv at sunrise on Friday, killing at least one person and cutting heating to hundreds of buildings in cold temperatures.
Moscow said it attacked Ukraine as retaliation for a strike using Western missiles on a chemical plant in Russia earlier in the week.
The strikes came as Russia’s invasion nears its three-year mark.
The airforce said it downed all five Iskander missiles Russia launched at the capital, but that debris caused damage in five districts.
“There were explosions after explosions in a row,” said 45-year-old Ksenia, who was staying at a hotel near the site of a wreckage.
The strikes killed at least one person and wounded nine, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
It also cut heating to 630 residential buildings, as well as a dozen of medical clinics and schools.
The first explosions echoed around 7 a.m. local time, said Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists in the Ukrainian capital, where officials had warned of a ballistic missile threat.
When 35-year-old doctor Victoria read the warnings on social media, she ran to a shelter.
“Even in the shelter, bricks fell on my head. It’s just horrible when people start running in from the street,” she told AFP.
She had come out to look at the charred cars and buildings with blown-out windows at the site of an attack.
“Russians should burn in hell,” she said.
Moscow claimed responsibility for the overnight attack on Ukraine, which came a day after Russian leader Vladimir Putin had threatened to strike Kyiv.
“In response to the actions of the Kyiv regime, supported by its Western handlers, a combined strike with long-range precision weapons was launched today,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement on Friday.
