RUSSIA fired eight ballistic missiles at Kiev earlier today, all of which were shot down, Ukraine’s air force said. 

The thwarted attack still left one person injured by shrapnel and three more suffered severe stress reactions, officials said.

A series of loud explosions rang out in Ukraine’s capital just after 4am, as the city was under its nightly curfew, followed by air raid sirens.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that in the Darnytskyi district of eastern Kiev the debris of an intercepted missile fell without catching fire, and elsewhere in the capital the explosive wave damaged the windows of a house.

The attack also left 120 households in the city without electricity, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said. 

Last winter Russian troops targeted the Ukrainian energy system, causing power outages and blackouts across the country.

Just over two weeks ago, Kiev came under what Ukrainian officials said was the most intense drone attack since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones against the capital, of which 74 were destroyed by air defences.

Monday’s attack on the capital happened as President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Argentina, where he attended the swearing-in of the country’s new ultra-neoliberal president, Javier Milei. 

It was the Ukrainian leader’s first official trip to Latin America as Kiev continues to court support among developing nations for its 21-month-old fight against Russia’s invading forces.

Mr Zelensky met with Mr Milei as well as with the presidents of Uruguay, Paraguay and Ecuador. 

At the inauguration Mr Zelensky could be seen exchanging words with Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, widely considered one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies in Europe and one of the few European leaders who has not sided with Ukraine in the war.

In his nightly video address, Mr Zelensky said he had a “highly straightforward conversation” with Mr Orban, “focused on our European affairs.” He said he also spoke by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen “about joint work at the EU level and about the joint defence of Europe.”

Elsewhere in Ukraine on Monday, Russia fired 18 drones overnight, and the air force intercepted all of them, mostly over the southern Mykolaiv region.