Russia launched more than 30 missiles on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, in the early hours of Thursday, injuring several people and damaging residential buildings and industrial facilities.

Air defences, however, downed all the missiles, city officials said.

The missile attack is the largest attack on the Ukrainian capital in weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed retribution for escalating strikes on Russia’s border regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West to deliver air defence systems after the attacks, which wounded 17 in Kyiv and the surrounding region.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 31 Russian missiles fired towards Kyiv.

Zelensky in a Telegram post on Thursday said: “Such terror continues every day and night.

“It is possible to put an end to it through global unity. Russian terrorists do not have missiles capable of bypassing Patriot and other leading world systems.

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“This protection is required in Ukraine now. From Kyiv to Kharkiv, Sumy to Kherson, and Odesa to the Donetsk region. This is entirely possible if our partners demonstrate sufficient political will.”

For weeks a vital $60 billion U.S. military aid package for Ukraine has been blocked in Congress amid domestic political arguments.

Local officials said falling debris from the missiles injured 17 people – 13 in Kyiv and four in the surrounding region.

The air force said Russia fired two Iskander ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles, launched from strategic bombers.

“Our defenders worked successfully and shot down all the missiles,” AFP quoted Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of Zelensky’s office, as saying.

Zelensky posted a video of windows blown out of a residential building and debris strewn across the street as firefighters used water hoses on the smoking building.

It was the first missile strike on the Ukrainian capital since early February, said Sergiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv city military administration.

Russia’s defence ministry, on Thursday, said that it had targeted Ukrainian military sites with “long-range high-precision weapons, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles”.

“The objectives of the strike have been achieved. All targets were hit,” it said in a daily briefing.

The attack comes after a sharp escalation in Ukrainian strikes on Russian border regions and oil refineries over the last two weeks.

The Star