Mother, Daughter Unable To Enter Shelter Killed In Russian Attack On Kyiv

Local residents said people were unable to enter the shelter because it was closed. It was not clear why.

A nine-year-old girl, her mother and another woman were killed in a Russian missile strike on Kyiv on Thursday after the air raid shelter they rushed to failed to open, witnesses said.

Police opened a criminal investigation into the three deaths near a medical clinic in the Desnyanskyi district of Kyiv after the 18th attack on the capital since the start of May.

"Three people, one of them a child, died near the clinic last night," Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said. "A rocket fragment fell near the entrance to the clinic four minutes after the air alert was announced. And people headed for the shelter."

Local residents said people were unable to enter the shelter because it was closed. It was not clear why.