No less than 14 of the 20 individuals wounded within the strike on Kyiv have been hospitalised, officers say.
Printed On 20 Aug 2026
Russian forces have launched a ballistic missile assault on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killing at the very least three individuals and wounding 20 others, officers stated, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confronted a wave of home political turmoil.
Explosions rang out throughout a number of districts of Kyiv shortly after midnight on Wednesday, shaking buildings and setting off automotive alarms, in line with the Kyiv Unbiased, a Ukrainian information outlet.
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The blasts hit the Sviatoshynskyi, Solomianskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts.
Within the Solomianskyi district, a nine-storey residential constructing collapsed and caught hearth following the assault, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated on Telegram. He stated {that a} youngsters’s hospital in the identical district was additionally broken, with home windows shattered and vehicles burning on the grounds.
“Persons are trapped” at one other residential constructing, he continued, with elements of each Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts additionally with out electrical energy. “Three individuals died within the capital,” he added.
Ukraine’s Air Power warned of incoming ballistic missiles because the assault unfolded, together with Russian Zircon missiles fired from Russia’s Kursk area.
Klitschko urged residents to remain in shelters as missiles continued approaching.
Of the 20 individuals injured, 14 have been additionally hospitalise, he stated.
A brand new defence minister
The strike got here a day after Ukraine’s parliament confirmed Yevhenii Khmara because the nation’s new defence minister. Lawmakers accepted his appointment 312-2, effectively above the 226 votes wanted.
Khmara is a profession intelligence official who rose by the ranks of the Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU). He beforehand led its Alpha particular operations unit, whose personnel have reportedly been linked to Operation Spiderweb, final yr’s drone assault deep inside Russian territory.
Addressing parliament earlier than the vote, Khmara pledged to “do every part to defend Ukraine, to cut back Russia’s conflict potential as a lot as attainable, and to drive the enemy right into a simply peace”. Zelenskyy known as the affirmation an indication that “Ukraine wants extra energy. And it’ll have it.”
Not everybody was satisfied, nonetheless. Opposition lawmaker Solomiia Bobrovska stated pulling Khmara from intelligence work was “a mistake”, even whereas praising him personally.
Khmara’s affirmation fills the emptiness left by former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. He was ousted in July after a public rupture with the armed forces commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, who was additionally changed weeks later amid public strain.
The rupture reverberated additional when, a day earlier than Khmara’s affirmation, Fedorov released a video calling for Ukraine to maneuver in direction of holding elections, presently suspended underneath wartime legislation.
He argued that the nation faces a “systemic disaster of governance”.
The political fallout spilled into the streets on Wednesday, as demonstrators rallied in Kyiv in help of Fedorov’s name.
“I’m right here as a result of I need to see dialogue between the federal government and the individuals, between all of us,” a protester advised Al Jazeera.
A number of others stated they backed the concept of renewing the nation’s management. However they have been sceptical that an actual vote might be held whereas the conflict continues.
Ukrainian legislation presently bars elections throughout wartime, and no main political determine has publicly pushed again on that since Russia’s full-scale invasion started in 2022.
Zelenskyy’s time period led to Could 2024, however the nation has postponed its presidential election because of persevering with martial legislation.
