Russian drones and missiles killed at least 10 civilians in Ukraine in overnight attacks, local officials said yesterday, with seven deaths reported in the capital, Kyiv, where emergency crews raced to search for people believed trapped under a partially collapsed apartment building.
Russia fired 352 drones and decoys overnight, as well as 11 ballistic missiles and five cruise missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defenses intercepted or jammed 339 drones and 15 missiles before they could reach their targets, a statement said.
The strikes came nearly a week after a Russian attack killed 28 people in Kyiv, 23 of them in a residential building that collapsed after a direct missile hit.
Photo: AFP
Russian forces for several months have been trying to drive deeper into Ukraine as part of a summer push along the roughly 1,000km front line, although the Institute for the Study of War said progress has failed to make significant gains.
“Russian forces are largely relying on poorly trained infantry to make gains in the face of Ukraine’s drone-based defense,” the Washington-based think tank said late on Sunday.
Russia also has pounded civilian areas with long-range strikes in an apparent attempt to weaken Ukrainian morale.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said preliminary data indicated that Russian forces used North Korean missiles in the Kyiv strike. He called Russia, North Korea and Iran, which has provided drones to Russia, a “coalition of murderers.”
Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s defense and new ways to pressure Russia would be the two main topics in his visit to the UK yesterday.
He was set to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of this week’s NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Starmer’s office said.
French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot said the latest strikes demonstrated Russia’s “unlimited cruelty” by deliberately aiming at civilian targets and promised more European sanctions on Moscow.
Drones and missiles hit residential areas, hospitals and sports infrastructure in numerous districts across Kyiv, emergency services said.
The most severe damage was in Shevchenkivskyi District, where a section of a five-story apartment building collapsed.
Six people were killed in the district, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Ten others, including a pregnant woman, were rescued from a nearby high-rise that also sustained heavy damage. Dozens of vehicles were burned or mangled by flying debris.
Oleksii Pozychaniuk, 29, who lives in the building next to the one struck, said he heard the whistle of the rocket approaching and “froze in terror” before feeling the impact.
“Windows burst out, glass was flying everywhere,” he said. “We barely made it downstairs with my child. Everything here was on fire.”
Klitschko said rescue workers were searching for survivors.
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