KYIV, Ukraine, March  25, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Ten people including a teenage
girl were wounded Monday after Ukrainian air defence systems downed two Russian
missiles over the capital, sending metal debris crashing to the ground.

Authorities in the eastern Kharkiv region also announced a 65-year-old man
had died in the courtyard of his home during a bout of Russian shelling.

AFP journalists in Kyiv saw emergency workers in helmets clearing concrete
and bent metal from one building ripped open during the attack, the third
aerial bombardment of the capital in just five days.

Moscow has escalated its aerial attacks on Kyiv, targeting key
infrastructure in the wake of fatal Ukrainian bombardments on Russian border
regions.

AFP reporters heard several explosions and air raid sirens in Kyiv almost
simultaneously at around 10:30 am (0830 GMT) as officials urged residents to
take shelter.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack showed again that Ukraine
needed better air defence systems from its allies.

"It means safety for our cities and saved human lives. All of us in the
world who respect and protect life need to stop this terror," he wrote on
social media.

Emergency services said 10 people were wounded, while Kyiv's Mayor Vitali
Klitschko said the teenager was among those hospitalised, and two pregnant
women suffered acute stress reactions.

Oksana, a Kyiv resident, was at work when she first heard the air raid
sirens and then a blast.

"Before I could do anything, the first explosion hit," she told AFP. "There
was a cloud of dust, smashed cars, windows, everything."

The head of Kyiv's military administration, Sergiy Popko, said Russia had
attacked with two ballistic missiles launched from the annexed Crimean
peninsula.

- Attack on Russian power plant -

He said both had been shot down but falling debris crashed onto several
central districts. Officials said an arts academy building and a gym were
damaged.

"Again this morning Russia is attacking Ukraine with hypersonic missiles,"
the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, wrote on social media.

"Ukraine needs our assistance now. There is not a moment to lose," she
added, in reference to a $60 billion military aid package held up in the US
Congress.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted footage purporting to show
school children running to a shelter at the time of the attack.

"This is a reminder that Ukraine urgently requires more air defence,
particularly Patriot systems and missiles capable of repelling any Russian
attack," he wrote.

The Kyiv attack came after almost a dozen people were wounded in a Russian
drone strike on southern Ukraine overnight, and a fire broke out at a major
Russian power plant following a Ukrainian drone attack.

Kyiv said Russian drones had hit the southern regions of Mykolaiv and
Odesa, leaving residents without electricity in parts of the Black Sea
territory.

In Russia, a fire broke out at a power plant in the southern region of
Rostov, the local governor said, after a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks in the
area.

Two power units at the Novocherkassk power station, one of the largest in
southwest Russia, were taken offline, Governor Vasily Golubev said on social
media.

The Rostov region borders Ukraine and the regional capital is home to
Russia's military command headquarters for its offensive against Kyiv.