Russian forces not firing missiles on Kyiv - source in Russian Defense Ministry

MOSCOW. Feb 25 (Interfax) - The Russian military has denied a missile strike on Kyiv which was claimed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"The Russian Armed Forces have not delivered any missile strikes on Kyiv, the heroism of which in the Great Patriotic War [of 1941-1945] has been finally recalled by Zelensky," a source in the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.

"The bright flare seen in the night sky of Kyiv on February 25 and the burning object's fall on a residential building in the Ukrainian capital have completely different explanations. A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet of the Ukrainian Air Force was on a patrolling mission in Kyiv last night. A Ukrainian air defense system stationed in the vicinity of Kyiv mistook it for a target and engaged," the source said.

"So, a comparison with the Great Patriotic War [of 1941-1945] suggested by Volodymyr Zelensky, who has done everything in recent years for the glorification of Ukrainian Nazis of the WWII period, actually exists. Still, it applies not to 1941, but to 1943, when the Red Army freed Kyiv from the Nazi forces of occupation," he said.