The site of a Russian missile strike in central Kyiv, on Dec. 20.Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
A Russian missile attack on Kyiv on Friday inflicted significant damage on a downtown real estate development partly owned by Canadians, illustrating the broader impact of Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.
The Toronto-Kyiv complex, which includes offices, shops, restaurants and a hotel, was one of several properties affected by the missile strike. A historic cathedral and six foreign embassies were also damaged. Early reports say one person was dead and 12 wounded.
Residents in the city centre heard loud explosions and fires broke out in several buildings, said Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration.
Ukraine’s military said its air defences shot down all five Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles used by Russian forces to attack Kyiv. Details were not immediately available on where falling debris landed.
International Trade Minister Mary Ng condemned Moscow’s conduct in a statement Friday.
“I am outraged by the senseless Russian missile attack on downtown Kyiv, which has caused significant damage to the Toronto-Kyiv Business Centre,” she said.
“This is a deliberate act of aggression that targets not only Ukraine’s infrastructure but also the spirit of international co-operation and friendship.”
She said Canada deplores “in the strongest possible terms Russia’s continued attacks on Ukrainian civilians and businesses.”
Yuliya Kovaliv, Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, said the Toronto-Kyiv complex has played host to Canadian business delegations, including a Canada Day reception this year that she attended. The development opened for business in 2012.
“It’s an example of Canada’s ongoing investments in Ukraine,” Ms. Kovaliv said. “The building is significantly damaged, the windows are broken and the exterior facade is destroyed,” she said. “And it happened just as people are preparing to celebrate Christmas so Putin once again shows his cruelty and that he and his regime are terrorists.”
Canadian Zenon Potichny, one of the investors in the Toronto-Kyiv complex, said the building suffered indirect damage, not a direct hit. He said the Canadian embassy holds a lot of events at the centre because of its Canadian connection and Ms. Ng herself attended a reception there previously. He said investors “100 per cent are going to rebuild” the complex.
Mr. Potichny, who lives in Toronto and is also president of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, said the complex is owned by a roughly equal partnership of Ukrainian and Canadian investors.
He said to him it’s ridiculous that in Europe in the 21st century this assault on Ukraine is still happening. Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 and in February, 2022, launched an all-out military assault on Ukraine that has lasted nearly three years.
The latest available assessment by the World Bank, European Commission, United Nations and Ukrainian government found that direct war damage in Ukraine had reached US$152-billion as of December, 2023, with housing, transport, commerce and industry, energy and agriculture the worst-affected sectors.
“The world cannot sit idly by and watch this,” Mr. Potichny said.
He said there was a Canadian business delegation staying at the Holiday Inn Kyiv – part of the complex – at the time of the missile strike Friday. They are seeking to invest in Ukraine and participated in the Rebuild Ukraine Conference that took place in Toronto earlier this month, Mr. Potichny said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said that the embassies of Albania, Argentina, Palestine, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Portugal, housed in the same building, were damaged as a result of the strike. There were no casualties among diplomatic staff, it said.
“This is another barbaric attack by Russia on civilian targets that shows no willingness for peace,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X.
The Russian Defence Ministry said it had struck a command centre used by Ukraine’s SBU security service, a site which it said was involved in the designing and construction of missiles and a U.S.-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system.
The Russian ministry said the goals of the strike had been achieved, casting it as response to Ukraine’s attack on Russia’s Rostov region with Western missiles.
Reuters was unable to verify the reports by either side.
The Russian strike also damaged St. Nicholas Cathedral, “a monument of national significance,” Ukraine’s Minister for Cultural Affairs Mykola Tochytskyi said on X.
Ukraine’s air force said it also downed 40 out of 65 drones launched by Russia across the country overnight, with a further 20 drones failing to reach their targets.
Russian troops also targeted Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson with various types of weapons during early morning, killing one person and wounding nine others, the regional governor said. Energy facilities were damaged, causing power cuts for up to 60,000 consumers, he added.
With a report from Reuters