Russia fired missiles at western Ukraine that killed an 8-year-old boy, local officials said, and drones that Russian officials accused the Ukrainian military of targeting Moscow for a third straight day but reportedly did no significant damage.
Also on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the dismissal of all heads of regional military services. This is part of his crackdown on corruption since the Russian war broke out in Ukraine more than 17 months ago.
The missile that killed the boy fell on a house in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of western Ukraine, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Polish border, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office.
But Ukrainian air defenses thwarted Russia’s daylight attack on Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Debris from intercepted missiles fell on residential areas of the city, including the compound of a children’s hospital, without causing any casualties, local authorities said.
Falling debris from rockets and drones has killed people on the ground and damaged buildings in Kiev in the past.
Meanwhile, a drone crashed in western Moscow after being stopped by Russian air defense systems, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Nobody was injured, he said.
The drone crashed on Karamyshevskaya Embankment, officials said, which is about five kilometers (3 miles) from a Moscow business district hit twice in previous drone incidents.
Reports of drones in the area disrupted flights at two Russian airports. Flights later resumed at Vnukovo Airport, one of Moscow’s busiest, and at Kaluga Airport, southwest of the city. It was the third straight day that Vnukovo Airport grounded flights due to drone strikes.
In Kiev, Zelenskyy said he would dismiss appointed board members in all regions of Ukraine. In a Telegram post, he said the jobs should go to war veterans, including those with injuries.
The move came after Ukraine’s security services provided details of 112 criminal cases against Military Service Committee officials suspected of taking bribes and corrupt practices, and against 33 suspects who have yet to be charged.
Previously, Zelenskyy had dismissed high-ranking officials suspected of corruption. It’s a signal to Western allies, who are providing tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Kiev, that Ukraine is serious about fighting bribery, which has long plagued the country’s military.
The long-simmering problem of corruption in Ukraine’s military service system came to light last June when a media investigation into Odessa’s regional military service commissioner, Ievhen Borysov, was released, sparking a scandal.
The investigation found that millions of dollars worth of real estate and luxury vehicles were allegedly owned by Borysov’s family members in Spain. Borysov denied any wrongdoing and said he had nothing to do with what his family bought.
According to the report, the State Investigative Bureau and the Security Service of Ukraine arrested numerous employees of the Military Service Committee suspected of bribery and corruption.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter for more English language news from the EL PAÍS USA Edition