EU Ambassador believes that government building hit by Iskander cluster missile

EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová, after visiting the Cabinet of Ministers building on Monday alongside other heads of diplomatic missions, has stated that it had been damaged by a Russian Iskander ballistic missile.

"I saw it with my own eyes: Putin knows exactly what he is doing. The Iskander ballistic missile that struck the Cabinet of Ministers was aimed right there – at the heart of Ukraine’s government," EU Ambassador Katarina Mathernova wrote on Facebook.

Mathernova described a morning visit to the site alongside other diplomatic mission heads, accompanied by Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and the ministers of foreign and internal affairs.

"We were shown sizeable remnants of the actual missile. And a multitude of shrapnel coming from the cluster munition embedded in the Iskander."

 "Only thanks to the missile failing to fully detonate, the entire building was not reduced to rubble. And thanks to the rapid action of Ukraine’s amazing rescue services – true heroes – the fire was contained to the three floors, before it would swallow the rest of the building."

 "This is the time for allies to step up, to massively increase pressure on Russia, and to give Ukraine what it needs to protect its skies."

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russians fired cruise missiles on the capital from an Iskander-K system on the night of 7 September, while ballistic Iskander missiles struck other cities across Ukraine the same night.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko previously posted a video of the Cabinet building damaged in the Russian attack, appealing to Ukraine’s partners to take action to stop Russia.