Editor’s Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Multiple explosions rocked Kyiv on Oct. 18 and again early on Oct. 19, Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported, as Russia launched successive ballistic missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
Unlike the previous evening’s attack, air raid alerts and warnings from Ukraine’s Air Force on Telegram were issued before the explosions were heard, giving residents advance warning of the threat.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that one of the capital’s metro stations on the left bank of the Dnipro River was damaged in the Oct. 19 attack.
Debris also damaged railway tracks and the metro’s power-supply rails near the station, Klitschko said.
In the Solomyanskyi district, debris struck the first floor of a 25-story residential building.
Debris also hit a non-residential building at another location. Emergency services were dispatched to both sites, the mayor said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the latest attack.
Earlier, residents had little warning before the missiles struck. The explosions were simultaneous with the blaring of air raid sirens, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground.
Phone alerts went off moments before the blasts, while the street sirens began “howling during the explosions,” Chief Editor Olga Rudenko reported.
A medical center in the Desnianskyi district was hit during the Oct. 18 strike, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported. Another building was hit in the Dniprovskyi district.
Emergency services were dispatched to the Oct. 18 attack sites, the mayor said. The death of a 21-year-old woman was reported, with no information yet available as to the total number of casualties or extent of the damage.
The Oct. 18 ballistic missile strike came just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky said the U.S. had resumed intelligence sharing with Ukraine about Russian missile launches.
The president’s announcement came as a relief, after Kyiv endured “massive explosions” on Oct. 12, when five Russian S-400 missiles struck the Ukrainian capital. Air raid sirens and mobile alerts sounded only after the attack.
The Oct. 12 attack came after the U.S. threatened to withhold intelligence from Ukraine unless Kyiv stopped attacking Russian refineries, sources told the Kyiv Independent.
A senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that the Oct. 18 missile attack followed a similar pattern.
“The ‘warning’ about a ballistic threat came through only after the strike had already happened,” the official said. “They’re up to something again.”
It can be common for Russia’s high-speed ballistic missiles to hit with very little advance warning. Kyiv Independent Reporter Kateryna Denisova said she had about three minutes to shelter between receiving the mobile alert and the first explosions, which is “usual when there’s a ballistic missile threat.”
Ukrainian officials have previously explained that satellite surveillance of launch sites can be vulnerable to transmission delays. Bad weather may also cause interference with the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellites, a surveillance network U.S. forces use to monitor Russian launch sites.
But the senior official who spoke to the Kyiv Independent said this explanation was unlikely.
“This has never happened before … but now we’re seeing ‘bad weather’ three times in a row,” the official said.
“When nothing comes through on any channel… well, we get it.”