Ukraine says 15 people hurt in ‘massive’ Russian attack on capital
KYIV—Russia launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv overnight in one of the biggest combined aerial attacks on the Ukrainian capital of the three-year war, damaging several apartment buildings and injuring 15 people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post it had been a “tough night” for Ukraine, and called for new international sanctions to pressure Moscow into agreeing to a ceasefire.
In the early hours of the morning, Reuters witnesses saw and heard successive waves of drones flying over Kyiv, and a series of explosions jolted the city.
The capital also reverberated with the sound of antiaircraft batteries trying to bring down the drones.
Pictures from Reuters photographers showed an orange-red glow lighting up the city as plumes of smoke blew across the horizon.
On the top floor of one apartment building, smoke and flames billowed out of a balcony window as firefighters tried to approach.
Damages
By daybreak, government officials reported damage in six districts of the Ukrainian capital, and a total so far of 15 people wounded. Three required hospitalization. Two of the injured were children, the officials said.
The Kyiv city military administration described it as one of the most massive combined drone and missile attacks of the war.
The attacks come as US President Donald Trump is encouraging Russia and Ukraine to sit down for ceasefire talks to end the war.
Halyna Tatarchuk, a 63-year-old pensioner, was in her apartment when a drone hit the building. She and her husband were in the corridor, away from the windows. “That saved us,” she said.
She fled to a bomb shelter at a nearby school, then at daylight returned to inspect the damage. All the windows of her apartment were smashed.
