Sawt Falasteen - Missile strikes pound Kyiv after Russia vows retaliation

Loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital, causing a residential building near the government district to shake, while dozens took shelter in an underground metro station in the city centre, according to AFP journalists.

"The capital has come under a mass ballistic missile attack," Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, wrote on Telegram.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said five people had been wounded and one of them hospitalised.

"There are currently reports of at least 4 locations affected by the attack: Shevchenkivsky, Dniprovsky and Podilsky districts. Fires and damage to residential buildings are preliminarily reported," Tkachenko said.

"A strike drone attack is ongoing; the ballistic missile threat remains present. Stay in shelters!"

Ukrainian authorities and the US embassy had earlier warned of a possible siginificant attack on the capital after Russia said it would "punish" those responsible for deadly strikes in a part of eastern Ukraine under its control.

Klitschko said medical teams were called to the Podilsky district in Kyiv's northwest, where debris fell in a non-residential area.

The attack also sparked a fire near a residential building in nearby Shevchenkivsky, he added.

- Missile attack warning -

Kyiv had earlier warned it was expecting a major Russian missile attack after its own forces launched a drone barrage in the Russian-occupied east, which Moscow said hit a college dormitory and killed at least 18 people.

Launched overnight on Thursday to Friday, the drone salvo -- one of Ukraine's deadliest such strikes in months -- also wounded 42 in Starobilsk, in the occupied Lugansk region, trapping people beneath the debris.

Ukraine denied targeting civilians, saying it had hit a Russian drone unit stationed in the Starobilsk area.

Russia's foreign ministry said on Friday that those responsible would face "inevitable and severe punishment".

On Saturday both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the US embassy in Kyiv issued warnings about the risk of a major Russian airstrike in the coming hours.

"We are seeing signs of preparation for a combined strike on Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv, involving various types of weaponry" including the Oreshnik, a Russian nuclear-capable hypersonic missile, Zelensky said in a post on social media.

The US embassy said it had "received information concerning a potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next 24 hours".

Ukraine regularly targets Russian-controlled areas of the country with drones, saying the strikes are retaliation for Russian attacks.

- Dormitory death toll -

Russia's emergency ministry said on Saturday it had pulled two more bodies from the rubble of the dormitory, taking the death toll to 18.

Video shared by the ministry showed dozens of rescuers sifting through what remained of a section of the five-storey building.

Most of those killed and missing were young women born between 2003 and 2008, according to a list of casualties published by the Moscow-backed governor of occupied Lugansk, Leonid Pasechnik.

"The region and the entire country share the fate of these people and the pain of their families," he said on Telegram.

The United Nations said on Friday it "strongly condemns any attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, wherever they occur", adding it could not verify details due to restricted access to the area.

Starobilsk lies about 65 kilometres (40 miles) from the front line in eastern Ukraine. It was captured by Russian forces in the early months of the offensive in 2022.

Kyiv has recently expanded its drone capabilities and stepped up strikes on undisputed Russian territory, including residential areas and oil export infrastructure.

Moscow has launched mass barrages of missiles and drones at Ukraine almost daily since the full-scale offensive began in 2022, also hitting infrastructure and causing civilian deaths. It denies targeting civilians.

US-led efforts to negotiate an end to more than four years of war have slowed in recent months with Washington's attention diverted towards its conflict in the Middle East.

U.Shaheen--SF-PST