TOP HEADLINES

• A hostile drone was shot down over Moscow, the city's mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram. Drone debris fell northwest of the city center, causing no serious damage and no casualties, he said.

• Explosions were heard in Kyiv on Friday after Ukraine authorities declared a nationwide air raid alert. Mayor Vitali Klitschko told residents to stay in shelters and the air force reported that Russia had launched hypersonic missiles at the region.

• Missile fragments crashed into the grounds of a children's hospital in Kyiv on Friday as the explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital. Klitschko said no one was hurt at the hospital. READ MORE BELOW

• The airspace over two Russian airports was temporarily closed on Friday, with all arrivals and departures suspended due to suspected drone flights, said RIA state news agency. 

• A Russian missile struck a hotel in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday evening, leaving one dead and 16 injured, Ukrainian officials said. It was a hotel that was used by United Nations staff when they worked in the town, said Denise Brown, the humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine.

• Ukraine has announced a "humanitarian corridor" in the Black Sea to release cargo ships trapped in its ports since the outbreak of the conflict, a new test of Russia's de facto blockade since Moscow abandoned a deal last month to let Kyiv export grain.

• The German government is in talks with arms maker MBDA about the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, a security source told Reuters on Friday. Kyiv has been pushing Berlin to supply it with the Taurus, a missile with a range of more than 500 kilometers that is fired from fighter jets such as the Tornado, the F-15 or the F-18.

• U.S. President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve about $40 billion in additional spending, including $24 billion for Ukraine and other international needs, $4 billion related to border security and $12 billion for disaster relief.

• A group of hackers spied for years on embassy officials of four countries in Belarus, including during the Ukraine war, by hijacking local internet networks, security researchers at Slovakian cybersecurity firm ESET said in a report.

IN DETAIL

Children's hospital struck by missile fragments in Kyiv

Missile fragments crashed into the grounds of a children's hospital in Kyiv on Friday and explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital as air defenses responded to a morning Russian air strike.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said no one was hurt at the hospital. Missile debris also damaged the roof of a house and fell on a complex of country homes in the capital's northern Obolon district, he said.

"We should thank our air defence forces for shooting down the missiles," Mykhailo Shamanov, a city official, said on television shortly after the strike.

Explosions were also reported in the western region of Khmelnytskyi where officials said air defenses were at work. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the area.

Authorities issued a nationwide air alert before the attack, and social media monitors reported that several Russian warplanes that carry long-range missiles had taken off from Russian air bases.

The air force reported that Russia had launched hypersonic Kinzhal missiles at Kyiv region, while city officials confirmed that the capital's air defences were at work.

Witnesses in the city center said they heard two loud explosions, but could not tell where they were coming from.

"Explosions in the city. Stay in shelters!" Klitschko wrote on Telegram.

The West has supplied sophisticated air defense systems to Ukraine to help defend itself from regular waves of Russian missile and drone strikes.

Those air defenses have allowed Kyiv to fend off the full brunt of Russia's air strikes in recent months, but other areas of Ukraine, a country double the size of Italy, are more thinly protected.

Russia has struck Ukrainian cities far from the front lines throughout its war. Moscow denies intentionally targeting civilians.

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