KYIV: Russia struck Ukraine's capital Kyiv with missiles early on Sunday, 5 June, for the first time in more than a month, while Ukrainian officials said a counter-attack on the main battlefield in the east had retaken half of the city of Sievierodonetsk.

Dark smoke could be seen from many miles away after the attack on two outlying districts of Kyiv. Ukraine said the strike hit a rail car repair works; Moscow said it had destroyed tanks sent by Eastern European countries to Ukraine.

At least one person was hospitalized, though there were no immediate reports of deaths. The strike was a sudden reminder of war in a capital where normal life has largely returned since Russian forces were driven from its outskirts in March.

Ukraine said Russia had carried out the strike using long-range air-launched missiles fired from heavy bombers as far away as the Caspian Sea - a weapon far more valuable than the tanks Russia claimed to have hit.

Ukraine's nuclear power operator said a Russian cruise missile had flown "critically low" over the country's second largest nuclear power plant.

Sunday's attack was the first big strike on Kyiv since late April, when a missile killed a journalist. Recent weeks have seen Russia focus its destructive might mainly on front lines in the east and south, although Moscow occasionally strikes elsewhere in what it calls a campaign to degrade Ukraine's military infrastructure and block Western arms shipments.

^{PHOTO: OFFICIALS OF UKRAINIAN RAILWAYS SPEAKING AT BRIEFING / VARIOUS DESTROYED BUILDINGS ON THE TERRI/ UNDAMAGED FACTORY FLOOR WITH RENOVATED RAIL CARS / MORE DESTROYED PARTS OF THE WORKS / REPAIR MEN AT WORK}