At least 14 of the 20 people wounded in the strike on Kyiv have been hospitalised, officials say.

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Ukraine election debate grows as ousted defence minister challenges wartime politics

Russian forces have launched a ballistic missile attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killing at least three people and wounding 20 others, officials said, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confronted a wave of domestic political turmoil.

Explosions rang out across several districts of Kyiv shortly after midnight on Wednesday, shaking buildings and setting off car alarms, according to the Kyiv Independent, a Ukrainian news outlet.

The blasts hit the Sviatoshynskyi, Solomianskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts.

In the Solomianskyi district, a nine-storey residential building collapsed and caught fire following the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. He said that a children’s hospital in the same district was also damaged, with windows shattered and cars burning on the grounds.

“People are trapped” at another residential building, he continued, with parts of both Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts also without electricity. “Three people died in the capital,” he added.

Ukraine’s Air Force warned of incoming ballistic missiles as the attack unfolded, along with Russian Zircon missiles fired from Russia’s Kursk region.

Klitschko urged residents to stay in shelters as missiles continued approaching.

Of the 20 people injured, 14 were also hospitalise, he said.

The strike came a day after Ukraine’s parliament confirmed Yevhenii Khmara as the country’s new defence minister. Lawmakers approved his appointment 312-2, well above the 226 votes needed.

Khmara is a career intelligence official who rose through the ranks of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). He previously led its Alpha special operations unit, whose personnel have reportedly been linked to Operation Spiderweb, last year’s drone attack deep inside Russian territory.

Addressing parliament before the vote, Khmara pledged to “do everything to defend Ukraine, to reduce Russia’s war potential as much as possible, and to force the enemy into a just peace”. Zelenskyy called the confirmation a sign that “Ukraine needs more strength. And it will have it.”

Not everyone was convinced, however. Opposition lawmaker Solomiia Bobrovska said pulling Khmara from intelligence work was “a mistake”, even while praising him personally.

Khmara’s confirmation fills the vacancy left by former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. He was ousted in July after a public rupture with the armed forces commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, who was also replaced weeks later amid public pressure.

The rupture reverberated further when, a day before Khmara’s confirmation, Fedorov released a video calling for Ukraine to move towards holding elections, currently suspended under wartime law.

He argued that the country faces a “systemic crisis of governance”.

The political fallout spilled into the streets on Wednesday, as dozens of demonstrators rallied in Kyiv in support of Fedorov’s call.

“It’s like we are in a trap,” said one protester who only gave her first name, Emilia. “Because we have not have not had any elections. So the members of parliament, the people who are in the executive branch of power, they understand that, hmm, ‘I can sit here and do whatever I want’,” she told Al Jazeera.

Several others said they backed the idea of renewing the country’s leadership. But they were sceptical that a real vote could be held while the war continues.

Ukrainian law currently bars elections during wartime, and no major political figure has publicly pushed back on that since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Zelenskyy’s term ended in May 2024, but the country has postponed its presidential election due to continuing martial law.