Russian strikes hit military base outside Kyiv – Ukraine army

Ukraine said Thursday that Moscow’s forces had struck a military base north of the capital Kyiv, in a rare admission of a successful Russian attack on Ukrainian military infrastructure.

Senior Ukraine military official Oleksiy Gromov told reporters that Russian forces had fired “six Kalibr cruise missiles on a military base in Lyutizh” at around 0200 GMT.

One building was destroyed and two were damaged, he said, in the attack on the town some 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of the capital. 

The missiles – one of which was shot down by Ukrainian air defences – were fired from the Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, he added.

Gromov also reported attacks on Ukraine’s northern region of Chernigiv, with shells fired from neighbouring Belarus, an ally of Moscow.

He added there were “losses” among Ukrainian troops.

In the east, Russian forces were trying to advance towards Siversk and Bakhmut — cities in the industrial Donbas region that Moscow is attempting to capture, Gromov said.

The situation there was “difficult but fully under control”, he said.

In the Russia-controlled region of Kherson, where Ukrainian forces are waging a counter-offensive, three villages have been recaptured over the past two weeks, Gromov added.

“It’s a troubled morning. Again there is missile terror. We will not give up,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.

At least one person was killed and two injured in a strike on the central Dnipro region, governor Valentin Reznichenko said on social media. 

Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv in the northeast was shelled twice during the night with S-300 missiles, resulting in fires, mayor Igor Terekhov said. 

In the southern Mykolaiv region one person was injured and a school building was destroyed following “extensive” shelling, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said.