Defiance as Russian strikes bring war back to the capital

Shevchenko Parkin central Kyiv is a tranquil public garden, where the trees are turning golden against the city’s blue, autumnal skies. Presiding over the park is a statue of Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine’s national poet, persecuted by the Russians in the 19th century for writing in Ukrainian.

- Charlotte Higgins, Peter Beaumont and Artem Mazhulin

But on Monday that sense of calm was violently shattered when a series of missiles hit the city centre. War had returned to what had been, for several months, a mostly peaceful if anxious city. Russia had launched a massive wave of strikes targeting cities across Ukraine, including key civilian infrastructure, in what the Kremlin said was a response to an attack on the Kerch bridge linking Russia and Crimea.

Ukraine’s emergency services said 19 people were killed and 105 more injured in Monday’s attacks, with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, warning of even more severe retaliation” in the event of further Ukrainian attacks. In televised comments, Putin said: If attempts at terrorist attacks continue, the response from Russia will be severe.”

Russia faced international condemnation, with the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, saying such acts have no place in the 21st century”.

Many of the locations hit by cruise missiles and kamikaze drones in the midst of the morning rush hour appeared to be solely civilian sites or key pieces of infrastructure, including the country’s electric grid, apparently chosen to terrorise Ukrainians.

A main road junction next to the park, near Taras Shevchenko National University’s science library, was hit. The rocket blast destroyed three cars, killing several occupants. Images from the immediate aftermath of the attack showed burning vehicles and first aiders treating the wounded.