KYIV (Ukraine): Russian forces launched a “massive” attack on Kyiv yesterday, hitting the Ukrainian capital with strikes that killed at least four people and wounded around 30 others, Ukrainian officials said.
The attack came as Moscow and Kyiv traded blame over an impasse in diplomatic efforts towards a peace deal spearheaded by US President Donald Trump.
AFP journalists in Kyiv witnessed powerful explosions that illuminated the night sky and left behind a column of smoke.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said the strikes killed four people and wounded “about 30 people”.
Those killed included a 14-yearold girl, while five children aged seven to 17 were among those who sustained “injuries of varying severity”, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration, said.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko described the strikes as a “massive attack” that caused damage in several districts of the capital.
Tkachenko said Moscow had fired ballistic and cruise missiles as well as Iranian-designed Shahed drones from different directions to “systematically” target residential buildings.
Red tracer bullets sailed through the night sky in an effort to intercept drones above the city centre, an AFP journalist saw.
At least one missile appeared to be shot down.
Around 100 people took refuge in a subway station, with some lying in sleeping bags and others holding their pets.
A five-storey building in the Darnytsky district had collapsed, and a shopping mall was hit in the city centre, Klitschko reported.
Kyiv suffered one of its worst attacks of the over three-year war on July 31, leaving more than 30 people dead including five children.
Ukrainian officials also reported a Russian strike in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region yesterday.
Russian authorities said they destroyed over 100 Ukrainian drones overnight.
A Ukrainian attack sparked a fire at an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region but caused no casualties, according to local officials.
Russian forces have been slowly but steadily gaining ground in Ukraine in recent months, as diplomatic efforts have accelerated.
Trump held a high-profile summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska this month, followed by a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky and European allies.
But there has been little progress since then. – AFP
