Russian Ballistic Missiles Hit Kyiv University Campus and Medical Facilities, Killing One and Injuring 10

Updated 05:52 UTC, October 27: Tuesday explosions confirmed by AP, Kharkiv and Pavlohrad tolls added

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that minutes after 3 a.m. Kyiv time, multiple ballistic missile explosions shook Kyiv and air alerts sounded in multiple parts of the country, a second independent confirmation of the Tuesday morning explosions first reported by a Reuters witness. The AP report, published at 12:26 a.m. CDT on October 27, also said the localised ceasefire in Oleshky is due to last through Saturday, and that up to 2,000 people are stranded in Oleshky with dwindling food and medicine. In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, Russian strikes late on Monday killed two people and injured four, authorities said. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said there had been three strikes on a city district and that a high rise apartment block and private homes had been damaged, and Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces had launched missiles at the city. In neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Oleksandr Hanzha said Russian forces had launched more than 50 drone and artillery attacks, and a drone strike in the city of Pavlohrad killed one person and wounded 10, three of them seriously hurt.

Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv late on Monday, October 26, killing at least one person and injuring 10, Ukrainian officials said. The attack hit a university campus, a student dormitory, residential buildings, an area near a metro station and two medical facilities in the capital.

Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported loud explosions in the Podilskyi and Obolon districts at about 9:45 p.m. local time. Minutes earlier, Ukraine's Air Force had warned that ballistic missiles were headed toward Kyiv.

Students among the injured

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said most of the injured were university students, many of them outside a student dormitory at the State Trade and Economics University on the east side of the Dnipro River. Nine people were taken to hospital, three of them in serious condition, according to Reuters. The injured include a paramedic, a medical technician and a 20-year-old university student.

Klitschko said one person was killed near a supermarket. The State Emergency Service said a body was found by a heavily damaged building, and that a three-storey commercial building was partially destroyed in the district where the person was found dead.

Medical facilities damaged, paramedics under fire

Two medical facilities in the Dniprovskyi district were damaged. Blast waves shattered windows in an intensive care unit at one facility and windows at the second site. A team of paramedics came under fire during the attack and an ambulance was damaged, the State Emergency Service reported. Explosions were also heard near a metro station in the Desnyanskyi district, where a car was damaged.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the missiles struck the grounds of a university and the area around it, including Kyoto Park, the area near a metro station and residential buildings. "The missiles hit very crowded areas, and there is not a single military facility nearby. This was a strike directly on the city, on its infrastructure," he said. Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said rescue operations were continuing and repeated his call for air defence supplies to reach Ukraine without delay. "It is precisely in such conditions, when the threat is constant, when strikes can happen at any moment and on cities and villages, that artificial delays in air defence for Ukraine are helping terror," he said.

Attack hours before a local ceasefire

The strike came hours before a localised ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine took effect in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky at 3:00 a.m. Kyiv time on Tuesday. The pause, brokered with the mediation of US First Lady Melania Trump, is intended to help evacuate elderly residents and bring humanitarian aid to the town. Explosions were heard in Kyiv again on Tuesday morning, a Reuters witness said.

Kyiv, a city of about three million people, has faced repeated ballistic missile attacks in recent weeks. A strike on the night of October 13 to 14 killed five people and injured 25, and another on the night of October 22 killed at least one person and injured 24.