Deadly Russian strikes hit Kyiv on eve of NATO Summit

By CARLOTTA GALL, STANISLAV KOZLIUK and CASSANDRA VINOGRAD

Explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early Monday, the eve of a NATO summit, as Russia mounted its second major attack on the city in days.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who is expected to attend the NATO summit in Turkey, said in a social media post that 12 people had been killed in the attack and 64 others wounded, including two children.

The war in Ukraine will be front and foremost at the NATO meeting Tuesday and Wednesday as the conflict has reached deep into Russian and Ukrainian cities.

President Donald Trump, who in recent months had turned his attention from Ukraine to the war in Iran, spoke with Zelenskyy and President Vladimir Putin of Russia over the weekend. Zelenskyy said he expected the conversations to continue at the summit.

As peace talks have been set aside, Russia and Ukraine in recent weeks intensified strikes on cities in each other’s territory. Aiming to bring the war home to the Russian public, Ukraine has mounted a new and wide-ranging strategy of drone strikes into Russia, targeting oil refineries as well as military production facilities. The attacks on the refineries have caused fuel shortages across Russia.

Moscow’s efforts to advance on the battlefield in Ukraine have largely stalled. But, in attacks that overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses, the Russian military regularly launches barrages of missiles and drones at large cities, hitting not only factories and warehouses but also apartment buildings.

In Kyiv, thick, black smoke rose across the skyline as dawn broke Monday. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the authorities were responding to multiple fires as well as attending at least one damaged apartment building where people were trapped. At least 15 residential buildings were destroyed or damaged in Kyiv overnight, authorities said on social media.

At the site of a damaged apartment building not far from the center of Kyiv, families hugged one other and wept as they watched a crane lift a concrete slab from the wreckage. A missile had gouged a huge hole in the nine-story complex, smashing though apartments on the top four floors and spilling their contents onto the ground below.

Rescuers clambered over the roof and into a wrecked apartment. They had brought out five bodies from the building, residents said. A rainstorm had doused the fire, but the air was thick with the smell of burning and the ground was black with soot.

The strike came without warning, one of three rapid and loud blasts that hit the area shortly after 1 a.m., residents said.

“We were woken by the explosion,” Vadim Litvishko said. He and his wife, Tetiana, and their 10-year-old son, Serhii, looked shaken, but Litvishko said their apartment farther along the building was intact.

Nearby, an unexploded missile lay deep in the mud of a courtyard, Litvishko said. Military officers and rescuers at the scene said the strikes had probably been caused by Russian Zircon cruise missiles. They spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

A mother and daughter watching the rescue operations said they did not think negotiations with Russia would end the war.

“It is hard after a drone or a missile has hit your apartment,” the daughter, Tetiana Belousova, said. “People understand that no one can reach an agreement with the Russian president.”

In the attack Monday, Russia launched 68 missiles and 351 drones, with Kyiv the main target, according to the Ukrainian air force. None of the 23 ballistic missiles launched were intercepted, the air force said, but most of the cruise missiles were.

Ballistic missiles move much faster than cruise missiles, and Patriot interceptors are the only air defense system in Ukraine’s arsenal that can shoot them down. Ukraine has other defenses that can shoot down cruise missiles.

Ukraine has made frequent pleas for new shipments of Patriots, suggesting that the remaining supply is low.

“Our warriors achieved good results today in intercepting drones and cruise missiles, but unfortunately not Russian ballistic missiles,” Zelenskyy said in a post on social media Monday morning. “The reason is the shortage of interceptor missiles,” he added.

He also noted, “It is crucial that the world — above all, America and our European partners — leave the NATO Summit in Ankara with strong decisions to support the defense of our skies and, therefore, the protection of civilian lives.”

On Thursday, Russia pounded Kyiv with missiles and drones in a nearly 12-hour assault that killed 31 people and wounded more than 100 others.