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Russian strikes on Kyiv kill at least 14 with attacks reported across Ukraine Russian strikes on Kyiv kill at least 14 with attacks reported across Ukraine
(about 1 hour later)
Overnight attack sees waves of drones and missiles strike Ukraine’s capital Attack sees waves of drones and missiles strike Ukraine’s capital in one of the deadliest nights since the war began
Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv under Russian drone attack with apartment building hitUkraine war briefing: Kyiv under Russian drone attack with apartment building hit
An overnight attack on Ukraine’s capital killed at least 14 people, the head of Kyiv’s military administration said early on Tuesday, with Russian strikes reported across the country. Russia launched a sustained missile and drone attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday, killing at least 14 people and wounding 55 in what was one of the deadliest nights in the Ukrainian capital since the full-scale war began in spring 2022.
“According to initial reports, there are already 14 deaths in Kyiv,” Tymur Tkachenko said, adding that rescuers were still searching the rubble for victims. The toll seemed likely to rise as several sites across the capital were hit. At a nine-story Soviet-era apartment block in the west of Kyiv, an apparent direct missile hit had led to part of the building collapsing, leaving a gaping hole and a pile of rubble in the middle of the block.
Waves of Russian drones and missiles struck districts across Kyiv, damaging an apartment building and sparking fires, city officials said. Reuters witnesses said drones swarmed over the capital and they heard what seemed to be missiles overhead. An air raid alert remained in effect for more than seven hours. Thirty apartments were destroyed in the strike, said Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, surveying the scene. “There could be people under the rubble, and we can’t exclude that the number of dead may rise,” he said. It was not clear how many people had been inside the building when the missile hit.
Other parts of the country also came under attack, including areas outside the capital and the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where the regional governor reported at least four strikes. As dawn broke, hundreds of rescue workers were attempting to clear the rubble at the site and rescue those stuck in neighbouring apartments. Shops and buildings within a radius of two blocks also suffered damage and smashed windows.
The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said many casualties were in the Solomianskyi district, near the city centre, where a drone damaged the top floor of an apartment building and other non-residential areas. “A ballistic missile had a direct hit on a nine-story apartment building, a section is destroyed, and is destroyed right down to the basement because it was a direct hit,” said interior minister Ihor Klymenko.
Tkachenko noted 12 strikes in five districts. Among the targets was a kindergarten in the city’s eastern edge. Wave after wave of drone attacks could be heard during the night, with the air raid siren active for several hours and thousands of Kyiv residents sheltering in metro stations. Buildings reverberated across the city as air defence units were active trying to fend off the attacks. As the city came back to life on Tuesday morning, there was a burning smell in the air of central Kyiv and a cloud of dark smoke hung over the outskirts.
Waves of drones had attacked Solomianskyi district, he said. Russia has launched almost nightly attacks on Ukraine over more than three years of full-scale war, but direct hits on Kyiv are rare, as the capital is well protected by air defence systems. Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, partly in apparent revenge for an audacious Ukrainian drone operation that targeted long-range bombers stationed at bases deep inside Russia.
“This is a very difficult night,” he wrote, adding that there had been power cuts in some areas. In Moscow, the city’s airports were briefly closed in the early hours of Tuesday, amid reports of a Ukrainian drone attack. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two Ukrainian drones approached the city and air defences responded.
Ukraine and Russia have launched mass drone attacks in recent weeks even as the two sides have held two sessions of direct talks on ending the more than three-year-old war. The talks have produced agreements on freeing prisoners of war and returning the bodies of fallen soldiers, but little more. US-led attempts to start a peace process have largely failed, with Russia ignoring Donald Trump’s demands to agree to a full ceasefire before talks begin. Direct talks in Istanbul have produced little in the way of progress and there is no sign that Russia is willing to abandon its maximalist war aims.
Klitschko reported that a 62-year-old US citizen had died in a building opposite a site where medics were providing assistance. He gave no further details and it was not clear how the man had died. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been due to meet Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada on Tuesday, but the White House announced that the US president was cutting his visit short and returning to Washington on Monday night due to tensions in the Middle East.
In Moscow, the mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said two Ukrainian drones approached the city and air defences responded. The city’s airports were briefly closed.