Russia Pounds Kyiv with Missiles, Ukraine’s Military Says 

Firemen work to extinguish a fire in a building of the International Academy of Personnel Management after a missile attack in Kyiv on September 2, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (AFP) 
Firemen work to extinguish a fire in a building of the International Academy of Personnel Management after a missile attack in Kyiv on September 2, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (AFP) 
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Russia Pounds Kyiv with Missiles, Ukraine’s Military Says 

Firemen work to extinguish a fire in a building of the International Academy of Personnel Management after a missile attack in Kyiv on September 2, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (AFP) 
Firemen work to extinguish a fire in a building of the International Academy of Personnel Management after a missile attack in Kyiv on September 2, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (AFP) 

Russia pounded Ukraine's capital of Kyiv with missiles early on Monday, while falling debris from the downed weapons injured at least two people, sparking fires and damaging homes and infrastructure, officials said.

Ukraine's air defense units destroyed more than 10 cruise missiles and nearly 10 ballistic missiles, the city's military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

Air raid alerts went out across Ukraine for nearly two hours before the air force declared the skies clear at 0330 GMT. Neighboring NATO member Poland activated Polish and allied aircraft to keep its airspace safe during the attacks.

A boiler house at a Kyiv water plant was partially damaged as was the entrance to a metro station doubling as a bomb shelter in the Svyatoshynksyi district, Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram, though the station still operates.

The district is home to a cluster of universities and schools.

The attack injured at least two people, Klitschko said. Cars were set ablaze across the city as well as a non-residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district, he added.

Emergency services also went to the districts of Svyatoshynksyi, Holosiivskyi, and Solomyanskyi, where debris fell from destroyed missiles, Klitschko added.

Solomyanskyi is home to a major train station and Kyiv's main airport. The historic neighborhood of Svyatoshynksyi is on the city's western edge, while Holosiivskyi is in its southwest.

Reuters' witnesses in Kyiv heard a series of loud explosions in what sounded like the work of air defense units, some in the central area.

The attack came exactly a week after Moscow launched more than 200 missiles and drones on Ukraine, killing seven people and striking energy facilities nationwide in what Kyiv called the war's "most massive" attack.

Russia denies targeting civilians in the 30-month-old war unleashed by Moscow's invasion of its smaller neighbor.



Putin Says Russia Advancing Fast - by Kilometers - in Eastern Ukraine

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with schoolchildren as he visits a secondary comprehensive school in Kyzyl on September 2, 2024, on the first day of the new school year, known as the Knowledge Day. (Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Pool / AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with schoolchildren as he visits a secondary comprehensive school in Kyzyl on September 2, 2024, on the first day of the new school year, known as the Knowledge Day. (Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Pool / AFP)
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Putin Says Russia Advancing Fast - by Kilometers - in Eastern Ukraine

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with schoolchildren as he visits a secondary comprehensive school in Kyzyl on September 2, 2024, on the first day of the new school year, known as the Knowledge Day. (Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Pool / AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with schoolchildren as he visits a secondary comprehensive school in Kyzyl on September 2, 2024, on the first day of the new school year, known as the Knowledge Day. (Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Pool / AFP)

Russian forces are advancing faster in eastern Ukraine than they have done for a long time, taking several square kilometers per day, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday as Moscow's forces tried to smash through a major Ukrainian defensive line.

Russian forces, which control 18% of Ukraine, have been advancing in eastern Ukraine since the failure of Kyiv's 2023 counter-offensive to achieve a major breakthrough.

Despite a major Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk region that began on Aug. 6, the numerically stronger Russian army has in recent weeks been thrusting relatively swiftly though settlements in eastern Ukraine on the approach to the strategically important city of Pokrovsk.

"We have not had such a pace in the offensive in Donbas (region) for a long time," Putin told children at Secondary School No. 20 in Kyzyl, Tuva, about 4,500 km (2,800 miles) east of Moscow.

"Now we are not talking about moving 200 or 300 meters (660 or 1,000 feet) forward ... The Russian armed forces are already bringing territories under control not by 200-300 meters but by square kilometers."

Pro-Russian military bloggers said on Monday that Russian forces were now fighting in the eastern Ukrainian towns of Selydove and Ukrainsk. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the reported Russian advance.

Yuri Podolyaka, an influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, said that intense battles were underway in Selydove, about 20 km (12 miles) south of Pokrovsk, and in Ukrainsk, about 14 km (nine miles) south of Selydove.

He said both sides were pushing forces into the battles for the towns, which had populations of over 20,000 and 10,000 respectively before full-scale war began in February 2022.

The pro-Russian blogger Rybar also said that fighting was going on in both towns. Russian state news agency TASS said that Ukrainian forces had been driven out of a part of Selydove.

By pushing south towards the town of Kurakhivka, Russian forces are seeking to break through Ukrainian defensive lines while increasing their sway over the Pokrovsk-Donetsk road and encircling a chunk of territory, Russian bloggers said.

Russia has been trying to expel Ukrainian forces from its southern Kursk region after Kyiv's Aug. 6 incursion, which was designed partly to pressure Russian generals to scramble forces from other parts of the eastern front in Ukraine.

Russian forces have taken control of the village of Skuchne in the eastern Donetsk region, RIA news agency cited Russia's Defense Ministry as saying on Monday.