An overnight Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv caused fires, destroyed buildings, and trapped residents under debris, resulting in nine deaths and over 70 injuries, according to Ukrainian officials on Thursday. Six children were among the injured.
“There has been destruction. The search for people trapped under rubble is ongoing,” the State Emergency Service reported on Telegram.
The most severe damage occurred at an apartment building in the Sviatoshynskyi district, located west of the city center. Rescue teams, using floodlights, carefully navigated piles of rubble and climbed ladders attached to building facades. Police were going door-to-door to check on the safety of residents.
The emergency service reported that rescue efforts were underway at 13 sites across the capital, with climbing specialists and sniffer dogs involved. Forty fires had erupted in various locations, including garages and administrative buildings, with falling metal fragments damaging vehicles.
“Mobile phones can be heard ringing beneath the rubble. The search will continue until it’s certain that everyone has been accounted for,” the service stated.
Fires also broke out in several areas, including garages and administrative buildings. An air raid alert remained in effect for six hours during the attacks.
Russia has not made any public comments on the incident.
The attacks come at a critical juncture in the war, which began with Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Both Kyiv and Moscow are under pressure from the United States to make progress toward a peace agreement.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky clashed again on Wednesday over efforts to end the war. Trump criticized Zelensky for refusing to acknowledge Russia’s occupation of Crimea as part of a potential U.S. peace deal.
The Trump administration has threatened to abandon its efforts to resolve the conflict unless both Ukraine and Russia agree to a peace deal.
“Yesterday’s Russian maximalist demands for Ukraine to withdraw from its regions, along with these brutal strikes, show that Russia, not Ukraine, is the obstacle to peace. Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated on X.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko confirmed that, besides Kyiv and its surrounding region, seven other regions were also targeted in the “mass” attack.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast, endured multiple waves of Russian missiles and drones overnight, Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported on Telegram. Terekhov stated that the city was attacked 14 times with drones and 10 times with missiles, damaging multi-story residential buildings, a city clinic, a school, private yards, industrial enterprises, and a hotel complex. One person was hospitalized.
The Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, was also hit by a Russian strike that targeted rescue teams attending to a fire, injuring one worker.
Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia confirmed that railway infrastructure was attacked, leaving two railway workers injured.
In Kyiv and Kharkiv regions, shelling caused damage to technical track and administrative buildings, but train operations continued as usual.
