KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine's capital overnight into Thursday that killed at least eight people and injured dozens as loud explosions shook Kyiv for hours.
The attack with ballistic and cruise missiles and drones damaged buildings and civilian infrastructure across the city. Many residents took shelter at metro stations after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other authorities issued the first warnings
of the attack.
The attack killed eight people, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Damage was recorded in 28 locations across the city, mainly residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, he added. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 34 people were injured.
Russia has intensified its attacks on Kyiv in recent weeks, even as Ukraine’s own long-range drone campaign against Russian military sites and energy facilities has caused fuel shortages and disrupted supply lines inside Russia.
Klitschko urged residents to remain in shelters, describing an ongoing “furious enemy attack” on the capital.
He said five people were injured in the Shevchenkivskyi district and one of the injured, a paramedic, was in extremely critical condition. Ukraine's Emergency Service says a hotel and two five-story residential buildings were damaged in the district.
In the Desnianskyi district, people were trapped inside a damaged nine-story residential building and rescuers headed to the scene, Klitschko said.
In the Holosiivskyi district, a fire broke out on the roof of a 16-story building, according to the Emergency Service.
In the Sviatoshynskyi district, fire broke out in two private residencies, the Emergency Service said. Debris trapped people in one of them, according to the mayor. In the Darnytskyi district, six levels of a nine-story building collapsed after a Russian strike and another five-story residential building was damaged, Klitschko said. The Emergency Service said a 16-story building and private residencies were damaged in the area.
Tkachenko said the attack partially destroyed a residential building in the Desnianskyi district, sparked fires near residential buildings at two locations in the Pecherskyi district, and ignited a fire near an administrative building in the Solomianskyi district. He said authorities were also recording damage in the Obolonskyi and Podilskyi districts. The head of the Kyiv Regional Administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, said damage occurred in five regional districts. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the region.
