Ukraine endured a deadly nationwide Russian missile barrage targeting energy facilities in Kyiv and other cities on Thursday, just hours before President Volodymyr Zelensky was set to meet US President Joe Biden at the White House.
Two people died in the southern city of Kherson, while a 9-year-old girl was among seven people injured in the latest attack on Kyiv. The child and an 18-year-old woman were hospitalized after debris fell from an infrastructure facility onto a residential building, according to Mayor Vitalii Klitschko. Officials called it “a terrible night for Kherson city,” noting that apartment buildings and cars were also damaged in Russian shelling on residential areas.
“It’s a restless morning,” Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said Thursday, as he urged Ukrainians to follow the safety rules. The air raid alarms, which frequently blare on loudspeakers throughout the city and on residents’ cell phones, are so commonplace that government officials have had to appeal to residents to continue to use bomb shelters.