Kyiv
At least 22 people have been killed, and several dozens were injured in a Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv, which came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of an impending “massive” attack by Moscow.
The Kyiv city military administration said the death toll had risen to 22 by early Thursday evening, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces would “definitely” retaliate for the overnight pummelling of the capital.
Damage from the strikes included an “ordinary nine-storey residential building”, Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that a missile had destroyed 64 apartments.
Footage shared by the president showed a gaping hole across six floors of the partially collapsed building, surrounded by rubble.
“Russia has once again deliberately attacked ordinary civilians and residential buildings,” the president said, adding that more than 130 such sites have been damaged in total across Kyiv.
City administration head Tymur Tkachenko said at least two children were among the injured and three dozen locations across the city had been damaged in the attacks.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia attacked the country with 74 missiles and 496 drones overnight. It said on Telegram that air defence units downed or neutralised 48 missiles and 476 drones, but 25 ballistic missiles and 12 drones hit 33 locations.
“We express our condolences to all the victims, families who lost their relatives and loved ones in this terrible terrorist attack. We will take revenge!” it added in a statement.
According to Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine, drones began entering the skies over Kyiv just past midnight local time (22:00 GMT).
“You could hear those interceptions overhead, and then very, very large explosions … around 2am [00:00 GMT],” she said, reporting from the Ukrainian capital.
Pictures shared on unofficial Telegram channels showed city residents crowding into underground stations to take cover from the Russian strikes. In the streets, residents were seen making their way to the shelters, carrying sleeping mats under their arms, the AFP news agency reported.
Residents had suspected an attack would take place, so thousands preemptively sheltered in the city’s subway systems, MacAlpine said. Dozens of missiles hit at least 30 locations in the city.
Zelenskyy said the sites included an ambulance station, a scientific institute, a hotel and businesses. Approximately 800,000 books were destroyed in the inventory warehouse of Ukrainian publishing house BookChef, the Kyiv Independent reported, while Ukraine’s private energy company DTEK said its energy infrastructure sustained damage.
Klitschko announced a day of mourning in Kyiv for Friday.
