Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy says two killed in Kyiv after mass Russian missile strikes reported across Ukraine

Zelenskiy says two people killed in Kyiv in Russia’s missile attack

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said two people had been killed in the capital Kyiv on Wednesday in a Russian missile attack.

“In Kyiv, more than 10 people were injured. As of now, we know of about two dead. There may be more people under the rubble,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.

Key events

The Ukrainian parliament passed at first reading a bill tightening army mobilisation rules aimed at allowing Kyiv to draft more people as war with Russia nears its third year, several lawmakers said.

“This is not the final decision. There will be a second reading, and changes will be made before it,” Oleksiy Honcharenko, one of the lawmakers, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Buildings across Kyiv hit in Russian missile attack – video

Russia’s upper house of parliament has asked the finance ministry to draw up a law that would impose retaliatory measures on the West if it moves against frozen Russian assets, the TASS state news agency reported.

The Financial Times reported on 3 February that the G7 had drawn up plans to use frozen Russian assets as collateral to raise money to help Ukraine.

The Kremlin on Monday warned the West that any attempt to use frozen Russian assets in such a way would be illegal and undermine the global financial system.

Danish police said its investigation into the Nord Stream gas pipeline blasts in the Baltic Sea in 2022 continued and it expected to provide more information on it “within a short time”.

The comment came shortly after Swedish prosecutors said they would drop their investigation into the incidents and hand evidence uncovered in the probe over to German investigators, Reuters reported.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the goals of what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine remain unchanged.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the subject after being asked about the upcoming two-year anniversary of the date when Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.

Swedish prosecutors have said they will drop further investigation into explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.

“The conclusion of the investigation is that Swedish jurisdiction does not apply and that the investigation therefore should be closed,” the Swedish Prosecution Authority said on Wednesday.

The multibillion-dollar Nord Stream pipelines transporting Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of blasts in Swedish and Danish waters in September 2022, releasing vast amounts of methane into the air.

Danish police have said the pipelines were hit by powerful explosions and Swedish investigators have confirmed traces of explosives found on site conclusively showed that sabotage had taken place.

Swiss foreign minister Ignazio Cassis said on Wednesday that he hoped China would “give us a hand” in the Ukraine peace talks, after Switzerland last month agreed to host a global peace summit on Ukraine.

When asked at a news conference in Beijing on whether China responded to the invitation to the summit, Cassis said:

It’s a very high-level conference, we can’t expect an immediate answer.

But without Russian participation, there would be no peace possible, he added.

Cassis was in China from Tuesday to Wednesday for the third round of the China-Switzerland Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue, Reuters reported.

Zelenskiy says two people killed in Kyiv in Russia’s missile attack

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said two people had been killed in the capital Kyiv on Wednesday in a Russian missile attack.

“In Kyiv, more than 10 people were injured. As of now, we know of about two dead. There may be more people under the rubble,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine’s air defence shot down 29 missiles and 15 drones launched by Russia in a massive attack on Wednesday, the Ukrainian army chief said.

Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said Russian forces launched 64 missiles and drones in several waves of the attack, Reuters reported.

A total of 44 missiles and drones were downed, he added on the Telegram messaging app.

Electricity out in parts of Kyiv, says mayor

Parts of the capital Kyiv were without electricity on Wednesday after a downed Russian missile damaged power lines, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Kyiv and the rest of the country were under a massive Russian attack, with the air alerts lasting for over two hours already.

Russian missile attack launched on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities

Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on Wednesday morning, Ukraine’s air force said, killing one person in the south and triggering air defence systems in the capital, where several blasts were heard.

Two loud explosions were heard in the centre of the city at around 7am, with at least two more 45 minutes later on, the Kyiv Post reported. One of its reporters heard air defences engaging multiple projectiles and saw one in-air explosion.

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to the Ukraine live blog. We start with news that Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities this morning.

Ukraine’s air force said the attack killed one person in the south and triggering air defence systems in the capital, where several blasts were heard.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that air defence systems were engaged and urged people to stay in their shelters. He said later medics were attending one victim in the Dnipro district of the capital.

In other news:

A missile attack in Mykolaiv left one person dead and reportedly damaged at least 20 residential buildings, said the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych. Oleh Sinehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region in Ukraine’s north-east, said Russian missiles struck non-residential infrastructure in Kharkiv city, the administrative centre of the region.
Polish and Nato warplanes had scrambled because “intensive long-range aviation activity of the Russian Federation is being observed, related to missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine”, Poland’s military said.
Ukrainian special forces have said they blew up a drilling platform in the Black Sea that Russia was using to increase the range of its drones. The operation, dubbed Citadel, was conducted at night and also captured “important enemy equipment”.
Joe Biden told Republicans in Congress to “show some spine”, stand up to Donald Trump and stop playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands as he acknowledged that an exhaustively negotiated, bipartisan bill that includes security funding for Ukraine is stalled. “All indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor,” said the US president. “Why? The simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically.”
A two-month-old baby was killed and three people were injured on Tuesday in a Russian strike on Zolochiv, north-eastern Ukraine, officials said. “Around 2.30am a three-storey hotel was destroyed in Zolochiv … following two S-300 missile strikes,” said Oleg Sinegubov, the Kharkiv regional governor. Thirty buildings were damaged including cafes, a market, pharmacies and a hotel, police said.
Some parts of the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka are in a “critical” condition as they fight off Russian shelling and incursions, according to Vitaliy Barabash, head of the town’s military administration. “This does not mean that everything is lost, that everything is very bad. But the enemy is directing very large amount of forces at our city,” he told Ukrainian TV.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has decreed the creation of a separate branch of Ukraine’s armed forces devoted to drones. Zelenskiy has pointed to drone production domestically and with partner nations as strategically vital, and pledged Ukraine will produce a million in 2024. The commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said in a comment for CNN last week that drones “along with other types of advanced weapons” help Ukraine avoid being drawn into costly positional warfare.