A military equipment factory manufacturing tanks in particular was targeted this Saturday morning by a bombardment in the suburbs of kyiv, noted an AFP journalist. Claimed by Moscow, this strike, which left one dead and several injured according to local authorities, comes the day after Russian forces warned that they were going to intensify their attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
“High-precision, long-range air-to-surface weapons destroyed production buildings of an arms factory in Kyiv,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Telegram. Also according to the AFP journalist present on the spot, a large number of soldiers and police were present on the scene, preventing access to the complex, from which smoke was billowing.
Kyiv mayor calls on residents to stay safe
The mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, announced on Facebook that he had no information on the potential victims at this time. “In the morning kyiv was shelled. Explosions sounded in the Darnytsky district on the outskirts of the city. Rescuers and doctors are currently working on the spot,” he wrote, calling on residents who left Kyiv not to return and to stay in a safe place.
A Russian strike had already hit a factory in the kyiv region that manufactured Neptune missiles on Friday, having been used to hit the Russian cruiser Moskva, flagship of the Kremlin which sank in the Black Sea on Thursday.
VIDEO. Ukraine: Russia bombs a missile factory and will intensify strikes on kyiv
Since the end of March, Russian fire on the kyiv region has become rarer, in particular because of the withdrawal of Russian troops around the capital, Moscow wanting to concentrate on eastern Ukraine. However, Russia on Friday threatened to step up its attacks on kyiv after accusing Ukraine of bombing villages on Russian territory near the Ukrainian border.