KYIV: Russian forces launched a large-scale overnight drone and missile attack on Kyiv, killing 10 people, injuring 38, and damaging residential and other buildings across seven districts, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the attack, which also killed a child, showed the world Russia’s answer to diplomacy amid efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the war.
“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” Zelenskiy said on X, calling for new sanctions on Russia. “It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war.”
Kyiv city authorities reported at least 38 injuries as the search and rescue operations were underway, with emergency services putting out the fires and sifting through the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Explosions lit up the night sky in the capital during the air alert, which lasted for over nine hours, with clouds of smoke covering the sky as drones buzzed overhead.
Ukrainian air force said it downed 563 of 598 drones and 26 of 31 missiles launched by Russia in a country-wide attack.
The Air Force recorded hits at 13 locations and debris falling at 26 locations.
“Unfortunately, the Russians’ style is typical in their attacks,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, wrote on Telegram.
“Combined strikes, from different directions. And systematic, targeting ordinary residential buildings.”
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, has stepped up air strikes in recent months on Ukrainian towns and cities far from the front lines of the war.
Ukrainian officials listed numerous buildings that had suffered damage, including several high-rise apartment blocks.
In Darnytskyi district, an eastern suburb, a five-storey building had been partly destroyed, Tkachenko said, and rescue teams were searching the rubble for trapped residents.
Emergency crews are tackling the aftermath of the attacks at more than 20 sites in the capital, he said.
Separately, Moscow’s Defence Ministry said that Russian air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 102 Ukrainian drones overnight, which had targeted at least seven regions.
In the overnight attack, Ukraine’s forces attacked Afipsky and Kuybyshevskyi oil refineries, according to the Ukrainian drone forces commander.
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