Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense intercepted Russian missile near Kiev station

A loud explosion heard this afternoon at the Kiev train station was due to the fall of a Russian missile that it was intercepted and destroyed by the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense, without causing casualties, but that it broke an important heating pipe in the city, informed the adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, Anton Geráshenko.

“An important heating pipeline in Kiev was damaged as a result of the missile attack in the area of ​​the central railway station. A part of the city could be deprived of heating tonight,” he wrote on Telegram.

The Unian agency, for its part, pointed out that a Russian shell fell in the area of ​​the station’s underpass. Between the Ibis hotel and the station building”, with no reported victims.

Shortly after, Geráshenko published a clarification about the explosion at the station, on his Telegram channel.

“Our heroic air defense shot down a cruise missile of the Russian fascists, that it was destined for one of the control centers,” he wrote.

Debris from the downed rocket damaged the main heating, but he said “it will be repaired in the morning.”

The Ukrainian official justified the activation of the anti-aircraft defense because, he said, “if this missile had reached a target somewhere in the center of Kiev, the casualties and destruction would have been horrendous.”

civilian casualties

The United States fears Russia is targeting civilians in Ukraine and warned on Wednesday that Moscow is transporting cluster munitions and other deadly weapons into the country.

“Hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians have been killed or injured,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who will travel to Eastern Europe next week to bolster US support for Ukraine.

Russia has launched attacks on buildings and cities that “are not military targets,” he said, adding that “the humanitarian consequences will increase in the coming days.” (I)