JUST IN: 4 Killed As Russia Unleashes Major Missile, Drone Attack On Ukraine

Russia pounded Kyiv with a massive missile and drone attack that killed four people, authorities said on Sunday, after President Vladimir Putin threatened retaliation for strikes in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.

Multiple rounds of loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital throughout the early hours of the morning, AFP journalists reported, in a barrage the air force said involved 600 drones and 90 missiles.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people had been killed in the capital and dozens wounded, while the head of the surrounding Kyiv region said two people had also been killed there.

Air defences intercepted 549 of the drones and 55 missiles, the air force said. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russians had fired a nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile in the barrage.

“Three Russian missiles against a water supply facility, a market burnt down, dozens of residential buildings damaged, several ordinary schools, and he (Putin) launched his ‘Oreshnik’ against Bila Tserkva (in central Ukraine),” Zelensky said on Telegram.

“They are genuinely deranged.”

Russia confirmed it had launched the Oreshnik at Ukraine.

“In response to Ukraine’s terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure on Russian territory, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a massive strike using Oreshnik ballistic missiles, Iskander air-launched ballistic missiles, Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missiles and Tsirkon cruise missiles,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

The blasts in the capital caused a residential building near the government district to shake, while dozens of people took shelter in an underground metro station in the city centre, AFP reporters said.