Russian missiles hit Kyiv, Chernihiv regions as Ukraine launches Kherson counteroffensive

Russia has launched major missile attacks on Ukraine’s Kyiv and Chernihiv districts, which have not been attacked in weeks.
Oleksiy Kuleba, the regional governor of Kyiv, claimed on Telegram that a village in the region’s Vyshgorod district was damaged by missiles targeting civilian facilities early Thursday morning. It was unclear whether there were any casualties.

At the same time, Chernihiv governor Vyacheslav Chaus stated that many missiles were fired from Belarus’ territory at the Honcharivska settlement.

Russian soldiers left the Kyiv and Chernihiv districts months earlier, having failed to seize either.

The renewed strikes on the areas come a day after the leader of pro-Kremlin separatists in the east, Denis Pushilin, publicly called on the Russian forces to “liberate Russian cities founded by the Russian people — Kyiv, Chernihiv, Poltava, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk.”

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, also came under a barrage of shelling overnight, its mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The southern city of Mykolaiv was fired at as well, with one person sustaining injuries.