Russia says Kursk strike kills 6 as it claims Kyiv attack

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of launching deadly missile strikes, with Russian officials saying at least six were killed by a missile strike on its Kursk border region after a dawn attack on Ukraine's capital killed one man.

Ukraine struck the small town of Rylsk in Russia's Kursk region, killing six including a child and wounding ten, said the governor, Alexander Khinshtein.

The border region is partly occupied by Ukrainian forces.

The Kursk governor accused Kyiv of firing US-supplied HIMARS rocket systems on civilian targets and said the strike damaged buildings including a school and the dormitory of a pilot training college.

Videos on social media showed cars on fire, debris strewn on roads and buildings with windows blown out.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS state news agency that Russia would raise the attack at a UN Security Council meeting later today.

Russia last year accused Ukraine of using cluster munitions to attack the town of around 15,000 residents located around 30km from the border.

The attack came hours after Russian missiles hit central Kyiv, killing at least one person and damaging embassies.

Russia claimed the dawn attack as retaliation for a strike using Western missiles on a chemical plant earlier in the week.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched five Iskander missiles on Kyiv, all of which it managed to shoot down, but falling debris damaged several districts.

'Explosions after explosions'

Russian aerial attacks regularly target the capital but rarely cause significant damage as the capital is well protected by air defence, nearly three years into Russia's invasion.

The strikes killed a 53-year-old man and wounded 13 people, most suffering from shrapnel injuries, city officials said.

They also damaged a building housing the embassies of Argentina, Palestine, North Macedonia, Portugal and Montenegro, and Albania's diplomatic mission, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.

"Another heinous Russian attack against Kyiv," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen posted on X.

"Putin's disregard for international law reaches new heights," Ms von der Leyen said.

"These are barbaric attacks on diplomatic institutions, this is crossing all possible red lines and international rules," foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy was quoted as saying by Ukrainian agency Interfax.

Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said Ukraine Patriot air-defence systems had been deployed to shoot down the missiles.

More strikes

Russia claimed responsibility for the overnight attack on Ukraine, carried out a day after Russian leader Vladimir Putin threatened to strike Kyiv.

"You know that such strikes on Russian territory have been carried out, and you know that the president has said that every time there will be a response," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The Russian defence ministry announced "a combined strike with long-range precision weapons" in response to Ukraine's earlier attack.

The ministry said it had targeted an office of the SBU security service and a defence industry site.

"All the targets have been struck," it added.

Mr Putin, at a press conference yesterday, had suggested a "high-tech duel" over the city of Kyiv to test his claims that Russia's new hypersonic ballistic missile, dubbed Oreshnik, is impervious to air defences.

"Let them set some target to be hit, let's say in Kyiv," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hit back, saying: "People are dying and he thinks it's 'interesting'... Dumbass."

Russian attacks also killed two people in Ukraine's southern city of Kherson.

"Today Kherson woke up from numerous strikes of the Russian army. The occupants have created hell in the city," governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Mr Prokudin also said shelling had cut power to 60,000 homes in the region, under daily strikes since Ukraine liberated the city in November 2022.

Russian forces have been pushed back to the other side of the Dnipro river, but the city of Kherson is within range of Russian artillery.

A Russian sabotage group tried but failed to cross the Dnipro during the shelling, spokesman for the Southern Defence Forces Vladyslav Voloshyn told state-run Suspilne media.

Russian troops are on the offensive again, especially in the eastern Donbas region, where this week they captured two small villages near the city of Pokrovsk.