Kyiv comes under Russian missile attack, killing at least six

A heavy Russian bombardment killed at least six people and wounded dozens in Ukraine’s capital and its surrounding region overnight, authorities said on Thursday.A missile attack on Kyiv struck residential areas and warehouses, said the Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko. The attack damaged residential buildings, a medical facility and an educational institution and left five people dead and 23 wounded, city military authorities said.An attack in Brovary district of the broader Kyiv region killed one man and wounded another, said the regional governor, Tymur Tkachenko. “One industrial facility has been damaged. All relevant services are on site, working to extinguish the fire,” he said.Ukraine’s air force had warned of Russian Kalibr cruise missiles passing over the regional village of Kagarlyk and headed towards the capital.On Wednesday a Russian drone hit a minibus in Kherson, killing four people, said Ukrainian prosecutors, while at Zhytomyr in central Ukraine a Banderol drone-missile hit the police headquarters, killing two officers and wounding at least 20 others, the police service said.While Kyiv has faced near-nightly attacks, Ukraine has also escalated its retaliatory strikes on Russia in recent months, partly to pressure Moscow to the negotiating table after nearly four and a half years of war. In Russia’s border regions of Belgorod and Bryansk two people were killed when drones hit cars, Russian officials said on Friday last week.Thursday’s latest attack on Kyiv came as Volodymyr Zelenskyy grappled with renewed scandal extending into the upper reaches of his administration. Ukraine’s president fired by decree one of his senior aides, Iryna Mudra, after multiple reports in Ukrainian media that her house was being searched by officials investigating an alleged money-laundering scheme.The Nabu anti-corruption agency said it was investigating a criminal conspiracy that involved “the participation of high-ranking officials from the office of the president” and several others. It is an extension of a high-level corruption scandal that has been running for months with government officials and wealthy influential figures variously being investigated, dismissed from office, arrested or fleeing the country.On Russia’s side of the border, Vladimir Putin’s regime has continued to face Ukrainian long-range strikes that, as well as burning the warehouses of online retailer Wildberries, have caused gasoline shortages as oil refineries and depots are blown up.With cars forming long queues at petrol stations, their operators are capping the number of litres sold per customer. Moscow confirmed on Wednesday that Russia is having to import refined petroleum products to try to stabilise supply. The Reuters news agency used industry contacts and market data to establish that a tanker from India had recently arrived and unloaded, while supplies were also being sourced from east Asia. It is a remarkable reversal of flow given that India has been one of the keenest buyers of Russian oil – sales of which can occur only through illicit channels such as Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of tankers, or officially at a capped price that is held down by international sanctions.