Drone, missile attack on Kyiv injures 11, damages buildings

Russian forces launched a massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv early on Friday, striking residential buildings and triggering explosions and fires in districts throughout the capital, officials said.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 11 people were injured. Four were being treated in hospital, including a pregnant woman and one person in a very serious condition.

Officials said falling debris and fires damaged high-rise apartment buildings, a school, a medical facility and administrative buildings in areas scattered throughout the city of some 3 million.

“The Russians are hitting residential buildings. There are a great many damaged multi-storey apartment buildings, in practically every district,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

He said both drones and missiles had been deployed and emergency crews were dispatched to several neighbourhoods.

Klitschko said Kyiv’s heating system had also sustained damage, with service interrupted in one district. He warned of possible disruptions to power and water supplies.

The mayor said three high-rise residential buildings were damaged in the Dniprovskyi district east of the Dnipro River, with nine residents evacuated from a building that was set ablaze.

Two buildings were damaged in the nearby Desnyanskyi district and five more in the historic Podil district on the opposite bank.

Several buildings suffered fire damage.

Pictures posted on social media showed different sites in flames and residents gathering in rubble-strewn streets outside apartment buildings.

The governor of Kyiv region outside the capital said drone and missile attacks injured one person and triggered fires in several localities.

Ukraine’s air force reported that Russian drones and guided bombs were targeting several other regions.