Russia confirms ‘high-precision’ airstrike on Kyiv during UN’s Guterres’ visit

Russia said Friday that it carried out a “high-precision” missile strike on a rocket facility in Kyiv while the UN Secretary-General was in the Ukrainian capital.

The missile attack on Thursday, during the visit of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, interrupted nearly two weeks of relative calm in Ukraine’s capital. According to Kyiv’s mayor, at least one person has been killed and at least three others have been injured.

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Russia’s Defense Ministry stated in its daily briefing on Friday that its Air Forces targeted and destroyed the Artyom space rocket plant.

“High-precision long-range air-based weapons destroyed the production facilities of the Artyom rocket and space industry enterprise in the city of Kyiv,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.  

“The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation in Ukraine,” the statement added. 

On Thursday, the Russian defence ministry said its forces carried out a series of airstrikes, destroying three power substations at Ukrainian railway hubs as well as a Tochka-U missile launcher that it claimed carried out an attack on the Russian-held city of Kherson.

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The attack, which occurred just after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s talks with Guterres, was described as an attempt to “humiliate the UN.”

Guterres had earlier denounced the “absurdity” of war in the twenty-first century.

The proximity of the attack to the UN team, according to a UN humanitarian office official travelling with Guterres, was “shocking.”

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Russian forces marched into Kyiv in the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion, which began on February 24, but withdrew in the face of robust Ukrainian opposition and as the campaign’s focus changed to eastern Ukraine.