At least 10 killed as Russian missile, drone strikes hit residential areas in Kyiv

KYIV: At least 10 people were killed and more than 50 others wounded on Thursday after Russian forces launched a wave of drone and missile strikes targeting residential buildings in the Ukrainian capital, officials said.

The overnight bombardment, described as the worst attack on the country since mid-June, prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to cut short his visit to Dublin, where he was scheduled to attend the start of Ireland’s six-month term in the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed the death toll on the Telegram messaging app and stated that a direct hit from a Russian projectile had caused six floors of a nine-storey apartment building to partially collapse. Emergency services worked through the rubble into the morning as fires flared up across the city.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, said 56 people, including two children, were injured, and three dozen locations across the city sustained damage. “The enemy has once again deliberately targeted residential neighbourhoods and killed civilians,” he wrote.

‘Night of horror’

In an earlier update, Mayor Klitschko noted that the injured included paramedics and drivers at an ambulance station, adding that several residents remained trapped inside the damaged structures.

Photographs shared online showed a large fire burning out of control at the top of a building on the central Shevchenko Boulevard, alongside shattered car windows and destroyed vehicles.

The intensity of the strikes triggered air raid alerts across most of Ukraine’s territory, forcing residents to crowd into underground metro stations with children, pets, and personal belongings.

The attack also put neighbouring European nations on alert. Poland, a NATO and EU member, briefly scrambled fighter jets as a preventive measure before recalling them after confirming no airspace violation had occurred. Meanwhile, Finland temporarily implemented an aviation restriction zone in the eastern Gulf of Finland.

Reacting to the strikes during a visit to Japan, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha issued an urgent appeal to international allies. “Do not delay decisions on air defence for Ukraine! This is our main request to our partners after Kyiv suffered a night of horror,” he said on social media platform X.

Moscow claims retaliation

Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed the “massive attack”, stating it used long-range, high-precision air-, land-, and sea-launched weapons alongside drones. Moscow claimed the strikes successfully hit military and energy facilities, as well as airports in Kyiv and other locations.

The ministry asserted that the bombardment was carried out in retaliation for recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian civil infrastructure, though it did not elaborate further. It also claimed that Russian air defences had downed 327 Ukrainian drones overnight, including over Russian-occupied territories.

The escalating cross-border strikes come amid a deepening fuel crisis within Russia, triggered by intensified Ukrainian drone attacks targeting oil refineries deeper inside Russian territory.

The governor of the remote Novosibirsk region located more than 3,000 kilometres east of Moscow, Andrey Travnikov, admitted on Telegram that the fuel crisis was worsening in his area, forcing authorities to prioritize emergency services for re-fuelling.

Further drone casualties were reported inside Russia on Thursday. In the Nizhny Novgorod region, home to the NORSI refinery, one of Russia’s largest oil facilities, one person was killed and four wounded at an industrial plant. Meanwhile, local officials in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine reported that a man was killed and his wife injured after a drone struck their home.