KYIV, Ukraine (GNP): A Russian ballistic missile and drone attack on Kyiv has killed at least 14 people and injured 22 others, marking one of the deadliest assaults on the Ukrainian capital this year. The strikes began after midnight Wednesday, with Kyiv’s military administration head Timur Tkachenko describing renewed large-scale attacks on the Kyiv region.
Air raid alerts remained active for more than an hour as successive waves of ballistic missiles struck the city and surrounding areas. Kyiv’s military administration reported that the barrage damaged residential buildings and warehouses across the region, with Tkachenko specifying that nine people died in the Boryspil district, four in Bucha, and one in Fastiv.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said rescue teams were concerned that people remained trapped under rubble following strikes in the city center, and reported that four of the injured were in serious condition. Kyiv’s military administration characterized the attack as a deliberate strike on civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Russia’s defence ministry offered a different account of the targets, stating that it had struck logistics hubs and supply centers used for storing and distributing weapons, military supplies, and drone production across Kyiv and the surrounding region. The ministry also said it had hit three cargo vessels near the Black Sea port of Odesa that it claimed were transporting weapons and military equipment.
The attack comes amid an intensifying exchange between the two sides, with Russia stepping up strikes on Kyiv in recent weeks while Ukraine has expanded its own attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure, including power facilities and warehouses. Among the targets Ukraine has repeatedly struck are facilities belonging to Russian e-commerce company Wildberries; the most recent such strike killed five people and wounded 10 others in the Moscow region on Tuesday.
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That exchange has produced mounting civilian casualties on both sides in recent days. Russian officials said a drone strike on a crowded beach in the southern Krasnodar region killed seven people and injured 58 a day earlier, while Ukraine separately condemned footage appearing to show a man being pursued by a drone in Kherson, describing it as a deliberate hunt targeting civilians. Both Russia and Ukraine have denied deliberately targeting civilian populations.
Amid the escalation, Ukraine has renewed its appeal to Western allies for additional US-made Patriot missile interceptors to strengthen its defences against Russian ballistic missile attacks.
