At least one person has been killed and several embassies have been damaged in an early morning Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
The Kyiv City Military Administration confirmed the death in a post on Telegram, adding that 12 others have been injured. Of those injured, five were hospitalized while the rest were treated at the scene.
It comes a day after Russian leader Vladimir Putin challenged Ukraine to a “duel” in his end-of-year conference, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to call the Russian leader a “dumbass.”
“Let them propose… some kind of technological experiment – a kind of high-tech duel of the 21st century, let’s say,” Putin said during Thursday’s event in Moscow. Zelensky in response hurled the rude epithet at the Kremlin leader in comments made online.
According to Ukraine’s Air Force Command, Russia fired five ballistic missiles at Kyiv at around 7 a.m. on Friday. Ukrainian air defenses shot down all five missiles. In addition, 40 UAVs were shot down, and another 20 drones did not reach their targets, according to the command. However, falling debris caused damage and injuries in the city center, officials said.
In one district, an office building, road surface and gas pipe were damaged, and five cars caught fire, Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said on Telegram. In another district, a fire broke out at the site of a building under construction.
Several embassies housed in the same building were damaged, according to Ukraine’s foreign ministry, with a spokesperson, Heorhii Tykhyi, calling the attack “barbaric.”
Buildings damaged during the missile barrage. – State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Reuters
A woman reacts at the scene of missile damage. – Thomas Peter/Reuters
“These are the embassies of Albania, Argentina, Palestine, North Macedonia, Portugal and Montenegro,” Tykhyi told a media briefing. “Windows and doors were smashed in the premises.”
Portugal said the facility suffered light damage and summoned the Russian chargé d’affaires to protest.
Russia’s defense ministry said it launched long-range missiles at Ukrainian military targets on Friday, in response to a Ukrainian attack targeting a chemical plant in Russia’s Rostov region earlier this week. That attack was carried out using American-made ATACMS missiles, the ministry said.
“In response to the actions of the Kyiv regime, supported by Western curators, this morning a group strike with long-range precision weapons was launched against the SBU command post, the Kyiv Luch design bureau, which designs and manufactures Neptune missile systems, Olkha ground-based cruise missiles, and the positions of the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system,” Russia’s Ministry of Defense wrote on Telegram.
“The strike targets were achieved. All objects were hit,” it added.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Nathan Hodge contributed reporting.
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