Russian missile barrage across Ukraine’s capital kills at least 14, wounds 33
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A Russian missile barrage killed at least 16 people overnight in Kyiv as Moscow targeted a children’s hospital, kindergarten, and residential buildings, officials said.
The assault saw Russia fire dozens of cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles, as well as 168 drones at the Ukrainian capital overwhelmed by a shortage of air defense weapons.
Horrific footage from the aftermath of the attack showed a grandmother wailing over the body of her grandson, she carried him out of their destroyed apartment building.
“A rocket hit the roof. It was incredibly loud, immediately, debris and doors were blown out,” neighbor Larysa Bondaruk, 60, said of the strike that killed the boy.
“There were columns of smoke, columns of fire, screams, crying and despair,” she told the Associated Press. “Two people were killed in our building, but the rescuers responded quickly and professionally. I am grateful to them for that.”
The Russian strikes hit 12 locations across Kyiv’s Darnytskyi, Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts, damaging residential buildings, a medical facility and an educational institution, with more than 40 people wounded in the attack.
In total, 30 residential buildings were hit, including a school used as a shelter, a children’s hospital, and a kindergarten, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Red Cross facilities and food warehouses in the city were also damaged in the attack, which lasted nearly nine hours, Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said.
Zelensky slammed the deadly air strike as one of the most “cynical, calculated, and large-scale” of the war, which is in its fifth year.
Ukraine’s air force said that it was able to intercept 90% of the drones and most of the cruise missiles fired across the border, but Kyiv’s lack of US-made Patriot missiles leave the country vulnerable, Zelensky said.
The Patriot interceptors remain the only weapon capable of downing Russia’s ballistic missiles.
“The interceptors for Patriot systems have not yet been replaced, and they are needed every day,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “Each additional missile saves the lives of our people.”
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President Trump had authorized Ukraine to obtain licenses to produce Patriot air-defense systems, but later reversed that decision.
Along with the airstrikes in Kyiv, Russia also targeted a border crossing with Moldova in the Black Sea, where repeated attacks have crippled Ukraine’s critical agricultural exports, putting pressure on global food prices.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has ramped up its own campaign of long-range strikes against weapons depots, military facilities and other strategic targets deep inside Russian territory in a bid to degrade Moscow’s ability to sustain its attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainian drones hit an industrial complex in the city of Nizhnekamsk overnight, along with the TANECO oil refinery and terminal in the Krasnodar region.