Russia launched drones and cruise and ballistic missiles at Kyiv early on September 2, with falling debris injuring at least two people while sparking fires and damaging homes and infrastructure, the city's mayor said.
A boiler at a Kyiv water plant was partially damaged, as was the entrance to a subway station also serving as a bomb shelter in the Svyatoshynk district, according to Vitaliy Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv.
At least two people were injured in the attack, Klitschko said, adding that emergency services were dispatched to several districts where debris fell from destroyed missiles.
"There will be an answer for everything. The enemy will feel it," Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office, wrote on his Telegram page following the attack.
Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv's city military administration, said more than 10 cruise missiles, about 10 ballistic missiles, and a drone fired by Russia at the Ukrainian capital and its suburbs were destroyed by Ukraine's air defenses.
Later, the Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 35 missiles of various types and 26 Shahed drones at Ukraine overnight on September 1-2, adding that nine ballistic missiles, 13 cruise missiles, and 20 drones were downed.
Air-raid alerts went out across Ukraine for nearly two hours before the air force declared the skies clear early on September 2. Neighboring NATO member Poland activated Polish and allied aircraft to keep its airspace safe during the attacks, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, two drones hit a residential building and a school, Ukrainian media reported. No casualties were reported in that attack.
The barrage comes a day after Russia’s military reported intercepting and destroying 158 Ukrainian drones targeting multiple Russian regions in what was described as one of the biggest Ukrainian attacks since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
It also comes weeks after Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia's Kursk region, which Moscow's forces have struggled to push back so far and to which the Kremlin has vowed to respond.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 2 that Ukraine's Kursk assault wouldn't prevent Russian forces from advancing in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian forces haven't achieved their goal of diverting Russian troops from the fighting there, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that the aim of the Kursk incursion was to create a buffer zone that might prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border.
Zelenskiy on September 2 met in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhya with visiting Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof and repeated his plea to allies to provide additional long-range weapons and to allow his forces to use them to fire deeper into Russian territory.
"For today, only to allow -- is also not enough," he told a briefing, adding that additional supplies of such weapons are desperately needed.
