Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv early on Friday, killing four people and wounding dozens in strikes on energy facilities, apartment buildings, and infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian forces used 430 drones and 18 missiles, making the attack one of the biggest on the capital so far. Kyiv was responding with long-range strikes, he said, urging allies to toughen sanctions on Russia.
The air force said most of the drones and missiles were shot down, but officials said falling debris and fires damaged high-rise apartments, a school, a medical facility, and administrative buildings across nine districts in the city of about 3 million.
“A wicked attack – as of now, we know of dozens of wounded, including children and a pregnant woman. Sadly, four people have been killed,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
‘People Screaming’
Anastasia, 29, described the moment her apartment block was hit: “At that moment you don’t know what to do first: save yourself, your child, or run to help people, because so many people were screaming and needed help,” she said.
Zelenskyy said the Azerbaijani Embassy was hit by debris from an Iskander missile.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that at least 29 people were injured across the city, including two children, and a pregnant woman was among nine people treated in the hospital.
Pictures showed flames rising over the city at various sites, as residents huddled in rubble-strewn streets outside apartment buildings after the attack.
The city’s heating system also suffered damage, with service interrupted in one district, but emergency outages had been resolved, the mayor said. Partial power cuts were announced in the central Kyiv region, in the southern Odesa region, and in the Donetsk region in the east, the energy ministry said.
Kyiv’s Response
The governor of the Kyiv region outside the capital said drone and missile attacks injured six people, including a seven-year-old child, and triggered several fires.
“Ukraine is responding to these strikes with long-range strength, and the world must stop these attacks on life with sanctions,” Zelenskiy said.
Kyiv has ramped up its drone attacks deep inside Russia, aiming to knock out oil refineries, depots, and pipelines and cripple Moscow’s biggest source of funding for its war in Ukraine.
Two industry sources told Reuters Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk halted oil exports on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack.
(with inputs from Reuters)
