Firefighters continue to neutralize a wagon repair facility in Kyiv after a Russian airstrike on Sunday.
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Firefighters continue to neutralize a wagon repair facility in Kyiv after a Russian airstrike on Sunday.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
KYIV, Ukraine – Russia has bombed the Ukrainian capital Kyiv for the first time in more than a month, destroying a facility that repairs broken railcars.
Four Russian missiles hit four separate buildings in the large railway complex. A fifth missile landed nearby, outside the compound. A railway worker was lightly injured but no one else was hurt in the strike around 5am local time on Sunday.
Russia claimed to have destroyed tanks and other armored vehicles, but NPR saw no signs of weapons at the scene.
Russian ground forces withdrew from the Kyiv region two months ago. The last airstrike on Kyiv dates back to April 28.
The unleashing of a relatively large strike on Kyiv once again suggests that Russian forces believed they had located a valuable target. Most of the fierce fighting in the 100+ day war has moved to the east of the country.
“I was one of the first to arrive at the scene, and to see with my own eyes, there are no military objects here,” a Ukrainian railway official said.
Reporters visiting the scene found collapsed roofs, crumbling brick walls, broken glass crunching underfoot and a still-smoldering structure. But no weapon was visible.
Extensive damage was found on Sunday at a railcar repair facility in Kyiv.
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Extensive damage was found on Sunday at a railcar repair facility in Kyiv.
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“We don’t have military machines in our factory. Only freight cars that help us export grain and iron ore,” said Alexander Kamyshin, CEO of Ukrainian Railways. said on Twitter.
Russian ships have disrupted Ukrainian grain exports by sea, forcing Ukraine to use trains and trucks to transport grain out of the country, although this comes with many logistical challenges. More than 20 million tonnes of grain are trapped in Ukraine, worsening a global food crisis.
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