Ukraine’s Kyiv on Thursday woke up to devastation after one of the most intense Russian drone strikes in recent months left at least nine people dead and 63 injured, including six children, reported AP.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said on its Telegram channel that Russia struck Kyiv with drones and ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian officials described the large-scale strike as a coordinated attack involving both drones and ballistic missiles.
Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration, reported multiple fires across residential areas, ignited by missile impacts.
Loud blasts had sounded over the Ukrainian capital at around 1 a.m. (2200 GMT) after air raid sirens rang out across Kyiv, warning residents to head to shelters, AFP journalists on the ground heard.
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Through the night, rescue workers were poring through the rubble of destroyed buildings and tackling blazes in apartment blocks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is yet to respond to Zelensky’s offer to completely halt air attacks on civilian targets, and last month rejected a US-Ukrainian call for a full and unconditional ceasefire.
“Putin shows only a desire to kill,” Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, said as Russia unleashed its attack overnight.
This comes hours after US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Russia has agreed to a deal to end the war in Ukraine, while lashing out at his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, for prolonging the conflict by resisting ceding Crimea.
“I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelensky,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He added, “I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelensky. So far, it’s been harder.”
The attacks throw yet more doubt on already fraught US efforts to push Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire.
Earlier in the day, Trump said that Zelensky was prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to part with the Crimean Peninsula, occupied by Russia since 2014.
