Another resident, Oksana, sent the BBC photos of the destroyed flat with its windows blown out and glass and bricks strewn across the floor.
“I don’t understand how I survived.” she said
“My balcony was blown off, half the wall was gone. My neighbors were so shocked they couldn’t even speak. I have nothing to say to the people who did this.”
A local journalist at the scene told the BBC that one of the nearby buildings was being used by Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, and may have been the target of the airstrike. residential building.
In a statement confirming the attack, Russia’s Defense Ministry said the missile was launched from an SBU “command post” in response to an attack on a chemical plant in Russia’s Rostov region two days earlier.
But there is also speculation in Kiev that Friday’s attack could be linked to the killing of Russian general Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in Moscow on Tuesday.
The attack came a day after President Vladimir Putin threatened to launch more ballistic missiles at the Ukrainian capital in a year-end press conference and phone call.
There are concerns in Kiev that Russia could use the so-called Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missiles to attack the capital. Moscow test-fired a missile in Dnipro city earlier this month.
Early Friday morning, Ukrainian authorities issued an air strike alert regarding possible Oreshnik missile launches and urged Kiev residents to evacuate urgently. It turned out to be a false alarm.
