Missiles and drones hit Kyiv in deadly wave of Russian strikes
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Marc Santora
Russia bombarded Kyiv with missiles and drones before dawn Thursday, killing at least 11 people, Ukrainian officials said, in an assault that came soon after President Donald Trump had warned Moscow of new sanctions if such violence persisted.
Rescuers raced to more than two dozen locations around the Ukrainian capital to extinguish fires and search for survivors in the rubble of blasted apartment buildings.
Emergency services and local officials said more than 130 people had also been wounded in the attacks. Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said in a statement that at least one child had been killed.
The assault came shortly after Trump threatened new sanctions on Moscow if President Vladimir Putin of Russia did not put a halt to the bloodshed in 10 days. Russian officials have dismissed that warning.
The bombardment began around midnight with swarms of drones packed with explosives descending on the city from multiple directions.
Tracer fire from heavy machine guns lit up the sky as air defense crews struggled to keep up with the barrage. Drones exploded over city streets as residents raced to find shelter wherever they could.
At 3:20 a.m., the Ukrainian air force issued an all-clear signal, but the threat resumed about an hour later. This time, missiles slammed into the city center, with one striking a nine-story apartment building.
There were direct hits from five missiles and 21 drones at 12 locations around the capital, the air force said in a statement. Debris from downed targets was also recorded at 19 locations — almost all in the capital.
Outside one devastated apartment building, a woman still in her pajamas and a young boy were carried away from the smoldering rubble as crews searched for survivors.
Ihor Klymenko, the minister of internal affairs, watched the search-and-rescue operation outside one damaged apartment building as workers struggled to free a man from the rubble.
Klymenko said the rescue crew had to cut a tunnel to free the man, clearing room around his head so he could breathe.
The man was eventually rescued a couple of hours later, officials said. He was taken away for medical care, but the extent of his injuries was not immediately clear.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said at least one child, a 6-year-old, was killed and nine others injured.
“This is the highest number of children injured in a single night in Kyiv since the start of the full-scale war,” he said.
Other towns and cities were also attacked. At least one person was killed and 11 more wounded when a residential building in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine was struck by a Russian bomb, local officials said. They warned that people may still be trapped under the rubble.
But the focus of a vast majority of the 309 drone and eight missiles used in the bombardment overnight was Kyiv, officials said.
“Today, the world once again saw Russia’s response to our desire for peace, shared with America and Europe,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said in a statement.
The only way to force Russia to make peace, he said, was for the United States and Europe to deploy the full range of diplomatic and military tools at their disposal.
A headline in RIA Novosti, an official Russian news agency, was shared widely across Ukrainian social media.
“There is no other option: no one should remain alive in Ukraine,” the headline proclaimed only hours before the first Russian drones crossed into Ukrainian airspace.
Trump entered office promising to quickly end the war, but the Kremlin has refused all calls for a halt to the fighting.
Instead, Moscow has increased the pace of its offensive on the front and expanded the scale of its bombardments directed at towns and cities across the country.
It is unclear what specific measures Trump will take to pressure Moscow if it fails to meet his deadline next week. Ukrainians hope that, at a minimum, he will target the Kremlin’s main source of funding for its war effort: oil exports.
The Senate has crafted legislation that would impose secondary sanctions on nations that buy Russian oil, including China, but lawmakers have held back voting on the measure despite broad bipartisan support.
Instead, they have deferred to the White House.
On Wednesday, Trump moved to penalize India for continuing to buy Russian oil and weapons and announced that he would impose a 25% tariff on the nation, saying he would include additional unspecified penalties for continuing to trade with Moscow.
Trump also responded to comments made by Dmitry Medvedev, a Russian former president and deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, who called Trump’s deadline a “threat and a step towards war” between Russia and the United States.
“Tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words,” Trump wrote in a statement posted on social media. “He’s entering very dangerous territory!”