Solomyanskyi is home to a major train station and Kyiv’s main airport. The historic neighbourhood of Svyatoshynksyi is on the city’s western edge, while Holosiivskyi is in its south-west.

Reuters’ witnesses in Kyiv heard a series of loud explosions in what sounded like the work of air defence units, some in the central area.

The attack came exactly a week after Moscow launched more than 200 missiles and drones on Ukraine, killing seven people and striking energy facilities nationwide in what Kyiv called the war’s “most massive” attack.

Russia denies targeting civilians in the 30-month-old war unleashed by Moscow’s invasion of its smaller neighbour.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is about to visit neighbouring Mongolia.

On the eve of his visit Putin told Mongolian newspaper Onoodor that Western nations are persecuting Russian journalists.

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“In order to hide from inconvenient facts, from truthful information, the West, which considers itself the standard of freedom, has launched an open persecution against Russian correspondents,” Putin said, according to a transcript provided on the Kremlin’s website.

Moscow said last week it was banning entry to Russia for 92 US citizens, including journalists, lawyers, and the heads of what it said were key military-industrial firms, over what it described as Washington’s Russophobic stance.

They also follow years of the Kremlin’s suppression of independent media and Moscow’s swift blocking of dissenting voices in Russian-language media outlets at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Putin said that in Russia, the media is free.

“The only requirement for them is compliance with Russian legislation,” he said. “Foreign correspondents accredited in our country should understand this.”

Russia has frequently accused Western countries of imposing unfair restrictions on its media abroad, including bans on some state-backed news outlets.

Putin told the Mongolian newspaper that Russian journalists face “direct censorship” in almost all Western countries.

“The only thing our media do is to convincingly convey the Russian point of view on current modern problems and processes taking place in the world,” Putin said.

In May, Russian lawmakers passed a bill giving prosecutors powers to shut foreign media bureaus in Moscow if a Western country has been “unfriendly” to Russian media.

Washington has imposed sanctions against some state-run Russian TV stations, which it says have spread disinformation to bolster Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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