President Zelensky Says Russia Launched 40 Missiles, 750 Motorized Bombs And 200 Drones Last Week

President Zelensky visited Ukrainian troops on the front lines. (Source: President.gov.ua)

JAKARTA - Russia on Sunday launched its third ballistic missile strike on Kyiv this month, but preliminary data showed most of the projectiles were shot down as they approached, the military administration of the capital Ukraine said.

"This has been the third ballistic attack in the capital in August, with an interval of exactly six days between each attack," said Chief Military Administration Kyiv Serhiy Popko on the messaging app Telegram.

Popko added that Russia most likely used North Korean-made ballistic missiles. Reuters was unable to independently verify the type of missile launched.

Separately, Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said it had destroyed eight Russian attack aircraft and five of the eight missiles launched overnight across the country, including Kyiv.

Oleshchuk said anti-aircraft combat forces, anti-aircraft missile forces, mobile firing groups, while electronic warfare units had dropped 13 aerial targets in the Kyiv, Sumy and Poltava areas.

He said Russia launched eight missiles on Sunday morning, including three ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and two guided aircraft missiles. Ukraine shot down five of them, he said, while the three missiles that escaped it failed to reach the target.

Kyiv officials said there were no direct reports of casualties or damage in the capital. However, Regional Governor Kyiv Ruslan Kravchenko said two private houses were destroyed and 16 others were damaged by the rubble that fell.

"Russia always knows where it attacks with missiles and dies, and this is a deliberate and directed Russian terror," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram.

He said Russia had launched more than 40 missiles, 750 guided aerial bombs and 200 attack drones this week against Ukrainian villages and cities.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the scale of the damage in the Kyiv region. A witness heard an explosion that sounded like an air defense system on Sunday morning.

About two hours after the initial attack, Kyiv, the surrounding region and most of central and northeastern Ukraine were under the warning of a new attack, with the threat of more missiles heading into the city, the Ukrainian air force said.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine two and a half years ago and now controls about 18 percent of its territory in the east and south.

On August 6, Ukraine carried out cross-border attacks with tank-backed soldiers and armored vehicles on Russia's Kursk territory. Last week, Ukrainian Military Commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said they had opened a military office in Kursk headed by Major General Eduard Moskalyov.