Russia launched a large-scale assault on Kyiv early Thursday, firing hundreds of attack drones and dozens of missiles in an offensive that officials said killed at least seven people and damaged multiple civilian sites across the capital. The strikes further dimmed prospects for a halt to fighting after a brief, contested truce earlier this month.
Ukrainian authorities said the assault included 675 attack drones and 56 missiles, and that their air defence units had shot down 652 of the drones and 41 of the missiles. Kyiv officials said that overall they destroyed roughly 94% of the drones and about 73% of the missiles fired in the wave of attacks. Kyiv’s air force also reported that Russia’s military fired more than 1,500 drones at Ukraine over Wednesday and Thursday.
The dead were recovered from the rubble of a single collapsed residential building in the capital, police said: three men, three women and a young girl. Another 45 people were reported wounded. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said about 20 sites in Kyiv suffered damage, including homes, a school, a veterinary clinic and other civilian infrastructure.
“Everything was burning. People were screaming … people were shouting,” said Andriy, a Kyiv resident near the destroyed building, describing chaotic scenes as emergency workers searched through debris at daybreak. Reporters in the capital heard air raid sirens and several hours of explosions and flashes that sent residents to metro stations and other shelters.
Rescue teams were seen pulling survivors and the dead from the wreckage of a gutted Soviet-era residential block, while other emergency services attended to damaged neighbourhoods. Officials said people were also wounded by strikes in the southern regions of Odesa and Kherson and in eastern Kharkiv.
Russia said the attacks targeted military-linked sites and energy facilities that support Ukrainian forces. Kyiv rejected demands from Moscow that it withdraw from the eastern Donbas region as a precondition for a ceasefire and full-scale talks; Ukrainian leaders have said such a withdrawal would be tantamount to capitulation.
The barrage came after a short truce last week that had briefly raised hopes for progress toward ending the conflict. That three-day ceasefire was brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, officials said, but was marred by accusations of violations and both sides resumed attacks soon after.
International leaders and institutions condemned Thursday’s strikes. French President Emmanuel Macron said by bombing civilians Moscow “demonstrates less its strength than its weakness,” while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the attacks showed Russia was “openly mocking” efforts to end the war. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said the assault during an important international summit demonstrated that Moscow posed a global threat to security.
Zelenskyy said one of the strikes in the south hit a U.N. vehicle in Kherson; he accused Russia of deliberately targeting it but added there were no casualties. The war, which began with Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has resulted in widespread death and displacement across the country.
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