KYIV: A Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian capital killed three people on Saturday, Ukrainian leaders said, in branding it a “heinous” attack, while Moscow called it “retaliation” for bombardments on its territory.

Russia frequently targets Kyiv with aerial attacks, but deadly strikes there are rare, as the capital is heavily protected by air defences and better able to fend off attacks than elsewhere in the country.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the world to up its pressure on the Kremlin to force it to end the nearly three-year invasion.

Russia’s defence ministry said the strike had hit a rocket-maker based in the Ukrainian capital. “The Russian armed forces carried out a group strike with precision-guided weapons against Ukrainian military-industrial facilities, including the Luch Design Bureau that develops and manufactures long-range guided missiles,” the Russian defence ministry said.

It called the attack “retaliation” for Ukraine’s use of US-supplied ATACMS missiles in strikes on Russian territory.

At least three people were killed and three wounded, Zelensky said, revising down an earlier toll of four. “Everyone who is helping the Russian state in this war must be put under such pressure that it is felt no less than these strikes. We can only do this in unity with the whole world,” Zelensky said on social media.

City officials said the victims were two men, aged 43 and 25, and a 41-year-old woman. Agency journalists in Kyiv saw a multi-storey building with windows blown out, debris strewn across the street, flooding, and the charred facade of a damaged McDonald’s outlet. Overnight, air raid sirens and the sounds of Ukrainian air defence systems had rung out across the capital.

Calling it a “heinous Russian ballistic attack,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said it was “yet another proof that Putin wants war, not peace”. The Russian president “must be forced to accept a just peace through strength — maximum economic and military pressure,” he added.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2025