Russia hammered Kyiv in a major drone and missile attack overnight into Thursday morning, killing at least 17 civilians and injuring scores more in what Moscow described as retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities that have caused fuel shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin. Loud explosions shook the Ukrainian capital for hours during the night, with many people sheltering at subway stations after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other authorities issued the first warnings of an incoming attack, reports the AP. Emergency crews were still digging through the rubble of collapsed and charred apartment buildings in search of victims as dawn broke.
Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the deadly bombardment was in response to Ukraine's long-range strikes on its civilian infrastructure. Ukraine's increasingly frequent and large-scale attacks—described by Zelensky as a 40-day blitz—have especially targeted oil refineries, causing a fuel crisis that has frustrated Russians, more than four years after Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbor. The attack killed 17 people in Kyiv and injured more than 90 others, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a "night of horror" in the capital. Damage was recorded in 30 locations across the city, mainly residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Some 20 residential buildings were damaged, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
Kyiv resident Serhii Budko said three or four ballistic missiles hit his district. "We were inside the shelter and felt the shelter shaking—the ceiling and floor, everything," the 24-year-old said. In Kyiv's Desnianskyi district, people were trapped inside a damaged nine-story residential building and rescuers were at the scene, Klitschko said. In the Darnytskyi district, six levels of a nine-story building collapsed. In the Holosiivskyi district, a fire broke out on the roof of a 16-story building, according to the Emergency Service, which said it deployed nearly 500 personnel and 100 specialized vehicles.
The attack used "high-precision long-range weapons" and drones on "military industry facilities and fuel and energy complexes in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, as well as military airfield infrastructure in four other regions of Ukraine," the Russian Defense Ministry's statement said. Russia fired 74 missiles, 24 of them ballistic, and 496 drones of various types in the attack, Ukraine's air force said. Ukrainian forces struck one of Russia's largest oil refineries overnight in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, starting a fire, Ukraine's General Staff said. Ukrainian forces also struck a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, it said. The bridge was used by Russian forces to transport personnel, weapons, and military supplies.
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