Ukraine war: Kyiv faces missile barrage after Zelenskiy targets Russian satellite network

Russian forces launched ‌a missile attack on Kyiv early on ‌Sunday, sparking fires in at least two districts of ​Ukraine’s capital, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.The city’s military administration said one person ​had been injured.Klitschko, writing on the Telegram messaging ⁠app, said falling debris had caused ‌a ‌fire ​in a non-residential part of a northern suburb.Several cars ⁠were ​on fire, and another ​fire had broken out in an ‌area just south ​of the city centre, he said.READ MOREReuters ⁠witnesses reported ⁠explosions ​in the city.Unofficial Telegram channels posted photos of what were described as market stalls ablaze in the suburb.Air alerts were in effect twice after ‌2 am (2300 ⁠GMT on Saturday), each for about half an hour.Russia has ‌in recent weeks been staging intensive air attacks ​on Kyiv and other ​Ukrainian cities. Ukraine says long-range strikes hit a Russian military airfield and a rocket centre ⁠that supports ⁠Russia’s nascent Starlink-style satellite ​internet network. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said Flamingo cruise missiles struck the rocket facility, about 900km from Ukraine’s border, as part of Kyiv’s campaign to pressure Moscow to end ⁠the war by targeting sites deep inside Russia.“It is important that Russia’s war potential be reduced. Peace is needed, and this must be evident in Russia – through concrete damage ⁠to specific facilities,” Zelenskiy wrote on X. He said the airfield hosted aircraft used to attack Ukraine. Ukraine’s armed forces said direct hits were ‌recorded at the airfield in Russia’s ‌Nizhny Novgorod region and the Progress rocket centre in Samara region, sparking fires ‌at both sites. Smoke rises over the city following a Russian strike in Kyiv on August 16, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photograph: Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP via Getty Images [ Putin’s pact with the Russian people is fraying and his paranoia is deepeningOpens in new window ]The Samara plant produces rockets used to launch satellites for the Rassvet broadband network, which Russia is developing as an alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink. Starlink operates in Ukraine but not in Russia, giving Kyiv an advantage in drone operations and battlefield communications. In the Samara region, local officials said air defences had repelled a “massive missile attack”. “Samara’s industrial infrastructure ‌sustained localised damage,” Ivan Noskov, head of the regional capital, said in an online post. Emergency services were working at the scene, he said. Russia has ⁠asked Washington and ⁠Ankara ⁠to explain reports ​of possible plans ⁠to transfer to Kyiv a “substantial ⁠arsenal” ​of ‌US weapons ‌and ammunition ‌held by Turkey, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry said ‌on Saturday. Such a transfer would ​cause “serious harm ... to our bilateral relations ⁠with Washington and ​Ankara,” the spokesperson ​said in ​a ‌statement. A Russian strike on an apartment block in south-eastern Ukraine on Saturday killed a three-month-old baby and wounded 11 people, local officials said. Drones hit the building in the town of Marhanets, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration. Russia’s defence ​ministry on Saturday said in the ‌past 24 hours its drones ​and missiles had ​struck Ukrainian logistics centres and energy and transport infrastructure used by the Ukrainian army, as well as assembly workshops for long-range drones and drone boats. – Reuters, Guardian[ Ukraine offers Russia truce in Black Sea as global food-supply fears mount, source saysOpens in new window ](c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026