Russian ballistic missiles injure six in Kyiv

Russian ballistic missiles hit several parts of Kyiv late on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and injured six people, four of whom were taken to hospital, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko as reported by the Kyiv Post. More missiles struck the capital in the early hours of Thursday, Oct. 22, a Reuters witness said. The attack came only hours after Moscow said it was "ready in principle" to return to peace talks, and on the same day US President Donald Trump said the sides were "the closest we've been" to ending the war, the BBC reported.kyivindependent.com+2

Homes and transport site hit

Klitschko said a car service station and a private house were hit directly in the Dniprovskyi district on the city's left bank. Debris struck another home nearby. "There may be people trapped under the rubble," he said, according to the Kyiv Independent. Elsewhere in the same district, debris fell near a gas station and damaged it, the Kyiv City Military Administration said, RBC-Ukraine reported. In the neighboring Darnytskyi district, a transport infrastructure facility was hit. The injury count started at one person in hospital and rose to six over the evening.kyivindependent.com+2

Vladyslav, who lives near one of the impact sites, said the blast blew out his windows. He and his neighbors then pulled a man and his wife from a burning house nearby.kyivindependent.com

Kyiv had already been attacked several times that week. Early on Oct. 21, drones hit a 24-story apartment building in the Sviatoshynskyi district, killing two people. Attacks on Oct. 20 killed one person and injured 21, city authorities said. In Russia, drones damaged apartment buildings and a medical facility in Lipetsk and injured a man, the regional governor said.kyivpost.com+1

Diplomacy and the strikes

On Wednesday, US envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, the day after he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo. Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said a new round of talks could take place around Nov. 10 in Abu Dhabi. He also called the US ideas not very "useful". Three-way talks were paused in February. Russia then stepped up its attacks as Ukraine ran low on Western-supplied interceptors.bbc.com

Zelensky told Fox News he would accept freezing the war along the current front line. "Freeze and stop. And of course this is minimum what we need from Russia today," he said. He also said earlier that Kyiv hopes Russia "will follow through" on saying it is ready to meet.kyivindependent.com+1