Russia Launches Drone Barrage on Kyiv, Other Ukrainian Cities
At least seven killed and over 50 wounded as Moscow targets apartment buildings, offices, and a cultural landmark.
Russia launched a series of drone attacks across Ukraine on Monday, striking apartment buildings, offices, data centers, and a cultural landmark in the capital, Kyiv. Officials reported that at least seven people were killed and more than 50 others wounded in the sustained assaults.
The attacks, which continued around the clock, targeted various civilian and infrastructure sites. In Kyiv, a drone strike on the Shevchenkivskyi district hit the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, killing one person and injuring others. Russian forces also struck a pharmaceutical company and gas stations within the capital. Simultaneously, an office center in the central city of Dnipro was hit during working hours, resulting in three deaths and at least 12 injuries. In Kharkiv, a nine-story apartment building sustained damage, wounding 43 people, including 11 children.
Across the country, Russian forces also hit a distribution hub belonging to the Nova Poshta postal service in Odesa and targeted cargo ships in the Black Sea and the port of Chornomorsk. Moscow stated these strikes aimed to curb Ukraine's grain exports.
These attacks follow a week of diplomatic efforts at the United Nations aimed at de-escalating the conflict. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated that prospects for a swift peace settlement were dim, citing recent Ukrainian actions, including those during Russian parliamentary elections.
"Ukraine will have to pay a price for the actions that have taken place in recent months," Peskov stated. "That is happening right now."
Meanwhile, Ukraine's Third Army Corps reported advancing on the eastern front, claiming to have recaptured 51 square kilometers (20 square miles) from Russian forces as part of Operation Vivaldi. The corps also stated it had converted armored personnel carriers into kamikaze vehicles to breach Russian defenses and used ground robots in its offensive. These claimed breakthroughs occurred in the Donetsk region.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that Ukrainian long-range drones struck two defense plants in Russia's Tula and Voronezh regions, as well as oil facilities in the Krasnodar region. Local emergency officials in Krasnodar confirmed that drone attacks overnight started fires at three infrastructure facilities.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses downed 254 Ukrainian drones overnight. The ministry also asserted that Russian troops captured the villages of Novovodiane in the Donetsk region and Ulanove in the Sumy region, claims that could not be independently verified.