Kiev metropolitan area

Ukraine said Friday it withstood a wave of Russian missiles including hypersonic Kinzhals, which were downed over the Kiev region where African leaders were due to hold talks as part of a peace mission.

"Russian missiles are a message to Africa: Russia wants more war, not peace," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Russia launched a pre-dawn air raid on Ukraine's capital on May 30, killing at least one person and sending Kiev's residents again scrambling into shelters to escape a relentless wave of daylight and nighttime bombardments, while Moscow authorities said the Russian capital was attacked by drones.

Ukraine's capital was subjected to the largest drone attack since the start of Russia's war, local officials said, as Kiev prepared to mark the anniversary of its founding on Sunday. At least one person was killed.

Kateryna Yakymowych, 38, Irpin

At the time of speaking to BIRN on May 23, Kateryna was excitedly waiting to fly to Rome the next day to see her five-year-old daughter. This would be only the third time in over a year when the mother and daughter got to see one another.

Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Kiev and other parts of Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 12 and striking a residential building in central Ukraine, officials said.

The first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine finds us in a familiar position. There has been a regular cycle in assessments of the conflict.

Greece expressed its condolences on Wednesday over the helicopter crash in a residential area near the capital of Kyiv that killed Ukraine's interior minister and about a dozen other people, including a child on the ground.

When a helicopter crashed in Brovary, Kyiv region today, the leadership of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry was killed, UNIAN news agency reported.

Sixteen people, including two children and Ukraine's interior minister, were killed when a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten outside the capital Kiev, officials said Wednesday.

Multiple explosions rocked Kiev early on Oct. 10 following months of relative calm in the Ukrainian capital.

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported explosions in the city's Shevchenko district, a large area in the center of Kiev that includes the historic old town as well as several government offices.