Explosions in Kyiv early Tuesday morning: missile debris in a residential building courtyard

Explosions were heard in Kyiv early Tuesday, as Reuters reports, as Russia continues its almost daily attacks on Ukraine in the fifth year of the war. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that missile debris fell in the courtyard of a residential building, while a non-residential building caught fire in another part of the city.

The attack comes a day after a heavy wave of drone strikes on Monday, during which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said nine people were killed and more than 80 injured in Russian drone attacks across the country, including Kyiv, according to Reuters.

On Monday during the day, Russian jet-powered drones struck central Kyiv in a hours-long attack, including the building of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences, the country’s most important research institution, which caught fire. One person was killed and 24 others injured in the attack, among them an aide to former National Security Council secretary Volodymyr Horbulin, as The Times reports.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of cynicism for hitting a scientific institution in the middle of the working day: “Russia is deliberately expanding the boundaries of what the world believes it will tolerate,” he said. According to The Times, Russia’s new jet-powered drones, adapted versions of Shahed drones with Chinese jet engines, fly up to 500 km/h at altitudes up to 7 km — well beyond the practical reach of most mobile air defenses.