Kyiv, Ukraine
—
Kyiv was struck by a “massive attack” from Russia overnight with drones and missiles killing at least 15 people, including four children, according to officials.
Among those killed are children aged 2, 17 and 14, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. At least 10 children were also injured, he said.
Ukraine’s Air Force said that the Kremlin unleashed 629 air attack weapons on the country overnight, comprising 598 drones and 31 missiles.
Russia’s defense ministry said it struck “military-industrial complex enterprises and military air bases in Ukraine” using “high-precision weapons.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the assault a “horrific and deliberate killing of civilians” in a post on X.
“These Russian missiles and attack drones today are a clear response to everyone in the world who, for weeks and months, has been calling for a ceasefire and for real diplomacy,” he said in an earlier post.
Ukrainian authorities said some 500 rescuers and 1,000 police officers were responding to incidents in multiple locations, including a building of the European Union mission to Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that she was “outraged” by the attack, calling it “another grim reminder of what is at stake.”
“It shows that the Kremlin will stop at nothing to terrorize Ukraine, blindly killing civilians, men, women and children, and even targeting the European Union,” she said.
Von der Leyen said that the EU is “keeping maximum pressure on Russia,” including by tightening its sanctions regime.
The bloc is summoning the Russian envoy in Brussels in response to the attack, the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said.
A British Council building in Kyiv was also damaged by the strikes, according to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “killing children and civilians, and sabotaging hopes of peace.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of targeting diplomats “in direct breach of the Vienna convention” and called for “worldwide condemnation” in a statement on X.
The bureau of Radio Liberty, a network funded by the US government, was also impacted in the strike, according to the organization. No staff members were hurt, but windows and equipment were damaged, it said.
Residents endured an air raid alert lasting more than nine hours overnight, according to interior minister Ihor Klymenko.
Vitaliy Protsiuk, a resident of Kyiv, told CNN that his wife has been missing since the attack.
The couple were getting ready to go to their building’s bomb shelter when there was an “explosion,” Protsiuk said.
“I was buried,” he continued. “When I came out, everything was covered in dust and smoke. I looked up – the roof was gone, and the floors from the fourth to the first were completely destroyed.
“As of now, my wife hasn’t been found. Her phone doesn’t respond. She’s not listed anywhere. I don’t know… we’re still searching,” Protsiuk added.
Agency pictures showed locals flocking once more to subway stations where many spent the night. Residents were advised to “stay in shelters” during the strikes and the all-clear was announced shortly before 7am local time.
The major attack on Ukraine’s capital comes just over two weeks after US President Donald Trump held face to face talks with Putin, seeking to secure and end the war.
But momentum around peace talks has stalled, with no sign that a bilateral meeting the White House has pushed between Zelensky and Putin will take place.
On Wednesday, Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelensky’s office, and Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, met with Saudi Arabia’s defense minister to discuss an end to the war.
A delegation from Ukraine is also set to meet US officials in New York on Friday, according to Zelensky.
Meanwhile, Putin is set to travel to China next week to attend a massive military parade. Other guests will include North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as Russia-friendly European leaders such as Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia and Slovakia’s Robert Fico.
The attack on Kyiv is the latest in a series of assaults across Ukraine this week, as Kremlin troops intensify their offensive amid stalled diplomatic efforts to end the war.
Ukrainian open-source researchers confirmed on Tuesday that Russian troops had captured two villages in Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russian forces now occupy the villages of Zaporizke and Novoheorhiivka, according to DeepState, a group tracking battlefield developments.
Ukraine’s outmanned and outgunned military has struggled to fend off grinding Russian advances in much of the east as Moscow increases pressure on Kyiv to give up territory in any peace negotiations.
“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” Zelensky wrote in his message on X after the latest overnight attacks. “It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war. And this means that Russia still does not fear the consequences.”
In his analysis of Russia’s latest strikes on Kyiv, Tkachenko said the Kremlin has a typical “signature” which involves “combined attacks from different directions” and targeting “ordinary residential buildings.”
Decoy missiles were used as false targets to confuse Ukrainian defense systems, the military chief added.
Several high-rise residential buildings were damaged, as well as a kindergarten, private housing, non-residential blocks, offices, transport infrastructure and dozens of cars, officials said.
“In total, the number of damaged facilities in Kyiv will again reach hundreds, with thousands of broken windows, and a shopping center in the city center was damaged,” Tkachenko added.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service sent aircraft to help extinguish fires across the city with the affected neighborhoods including Darnytskyi, Desnianskyi, Dniprovskyi, Holosiivskyi, Obolonskyi, Solomianskyi and Shevchenkivskyi, which is home to several cultural and religious landmarks.
