Russia's deadliest attack on Kiev for months flattens apartment block
Kiev
Russia has carried out a mass missile and drone attack on Ukraine's capital, Kiev, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 100 others, officials said.
A drone smashed into an apartment block, destroying dozens of flats and Ukraine's interior minister said the country had been hit by 440 drones and 32 missiles.
Officials said initially that 15 people had died in the capital, but later revised the number down to 10, with another two fatalities in the southern port city of Odesa.
The attack overnight into Tuesday was among the biggest on the capital since the start of Russia's full-scale war and President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was 'one of the most terrifying strikes'.
Russia's defence ministry said it had targeted Ukraine's military-industrial complexes and that all its targets had been hit. The strikes on Kiev lasted more than nine hours – sending residents fleeing to underground shelters from before midnight until after sunrise.
Officials said a ballistic missile hit a nine-storey apartment building in one district, with a total of 27 locations in the city coming under fire. An entrance to the building in the southwestern Solomyanskyi district came crashing down and there were concerns the number of casualties could rise.
A 62-year-old US citizen was among those killed, Kiev's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Standing in front of the remains of the building, Klitschko said more than 40 apartments had been destroyed and more people might be trapped under the rubble.
He accused Russia of firing cluster bomblets filled with ball bearings to kill as many people as possible.
'Waking up in utter nightmare: people trapped under rubble and full buildings collapsed,' Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko wrote on X.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that a variety of buildings had come under Russian attack, including residential, critical infrastructure and educational facilities.
People were still under the rubble by late afternoon and rescue work was going on at two sites, he said. Klymenko explained that initial mistakes made in counting the dead often happened because body parts were wrongly identified.
Loud explosions rocked the city in the early hours of Tuesday, along with the rattle of the machine guns used by mobile Ukrainian air defence units to shoot down drones.
More sirens later in the morning disrupted rescue operations in the city, hampering emergency workers searching the rubble for survivors.
Russia has intensified its air attacks against Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, with a tactic of sending large waves of drones and decoys designed to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences.
Kiev has launched attacks of its own, as direct talks between the warring sides failed to secure a ceasefire or significant breakthrough.
Russia accused Ukrainian forces of launching a missile strike on a district in occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, and Russia-appointed officials said at least 10 people had been hurt.
A reported 147 Ukrainian drones were shot down over nine Russian regions overnight, Russian news agencies said.
President Zelensky, who has travelled to the G7 summit in Canada, called Russia's most recent wave of strikes 'pure terrorism'.
He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of carrying out the large-scale strikes 'solely because he can afford to continue this war'.
'It is bad when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to this,' he said, adding: 'It is the terrorists who should feel the pain, not normal, peaceful people.' Drone strikes also hit the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, killing two people and wounding 10 others, officials said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
10 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,247
Here is how things stand on Friday, July 25 : Fighting Ukraine and Russia have attacked targets on each other's territory after brief direct talks between the two sides in Istanbul failed to make any progress on steps to end nearly three-and-a-half years of war. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said Russia launched 103 drones and four missiles during its overnight attack, hitting civilian infrastructure, including seaports, transport hubs, and residential areas. One person was killed and four others injured after Russian forces staged the latest in a series of mass drone attacks on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa. The attack also caused several fires as well as damage to the historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage site. At least two people were killed and at least 33 others wounded after Russian glide bombs struck a residential neighbourhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city in the northeast of the country, officials said. One person was killed in a drone attack in Ukraine's Sumy region on the northern border with Russia, where Moscow's forces have established a foothold in recent months. Russia also attacked the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy overnight, injuring seven people, including a nine-year-old child, and damaging more than a dozen residential apartment buildings. Emergency officials in Russia's Krasnodar region on the Black Sea said debris from a falling drone struck and killed a woman in the Adler district near the resort city of Sochi. A second woman was being treated in hospital for serious injuries. The administrative head of the Sirius federal district, south of Sochi, said a drone hit an oil terminal, giving no further details. Russia's aviation authority also said operations were suspended at Sochi airport for about four hours. Russian forces have taken control of the villages of Zvirove and Novoekonomichne in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Ministry of Defence said. The claim could not be independently verified. Russian forces are making every effort to establish buffer zones along the border with Ukraine, state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. Military aid The United States Department of State has approved potential military sales, including air defence, to Ukraine worth $330m, the Pentagon said. An Indian company – Ideal Detonators Private Limited – shipped $1.4m worth of an explosive compound with military uses to Russia in December, according to Indian customs data seen by the Reuters news agency, despite US threats to impose sanctions on any entity supporting Russia's Ukraine war effort. Politics and diplomacy President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has blamed Russia for rejecting a proposal presented during the Istanbul talks for an immediate and complete ceasefire. He said that instead of accepting a truce deal, Russian drones struck residential buildings in Ukraine. Zelenskyy has submitted draft legislation to restore the independence of Ukraine's anticorruption agency NABU and anticorruption prosecution unit SAPO, reversing course after an outburst of public criticism over his attempt to remove their status as independent organisations. The Kremlin said it was hard to see how Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet Zelenskyy before the end of August, RIA reported. Earlier, a Ukrainian official suggested that Kyiv had proposed a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting in August, within the 50-day deadline set by the US for both sides to reach a ceasefire deal. The European Union has expressed its expectations that China will respond to the EU's concerns and use its influence to urge Russia towards accepting a ceasefire in Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said following her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Russia Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused German Chancellor Friedrich Merz of pursuing a path of 'militarisation' and said this was a cause for concern. She said Berlin is pursuing an openly hostile policy, and that Merz was stepping up anti-Russian rhetoric 'literally every day'. Economy Ukraine's Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyy said his government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – Kyiv's key international lender – were working on a new lending programme. Ukraine currently has a $15.5bn four-year lending programme with the IMF that is set to expire in 2027. Kyiv has received about $10.6bn under the programme so far.
Qatar Tribune
13 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Ukraine's Zelensky introduces bill after anti-corruption protests
Kiev: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted a new draft bill to the country's legislature, in an effort to calm outrage over a previously passed law that critics say paves the way for corruption. The country's anticorruption agencies quickly hailed the bill's introduction on Thursday, saying it would restore their 'procedural powers and guarantees of independence'. The Ukrainian leader has contended with protests and condemnation from both within Ukraine and from its closest European allies after a separate controversial law was passed on Tuesday. That law placed the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) under the direct authority of the country's prosecutor general – a position appointed by the president.
Al Jazeera
16 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Ukraine's Zelenskyy introduces bill after anticorruption protests
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has submitted a new draft bill to the country's legislature, in an effort to calm outrage over a previously passed law that critics say paves the way for corruption. The country's anticorruption agencies quickly hailed the bill's introduction on Thursday, saying it would restore their 'procedural powers and guarantees of independence'. The Ukrainian leader has contended with protests and condemnation from both within Ukraine and from its closest European allies after a separate controversial law was passed on Tuesday. That law placed the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) under the direct authority of the country's prosecutor general – a position appointed by the president. Zelenskyy initially maintained that the law was needed to respond to suspected 'Russian influence' within the agencies amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Critics, however, said the law would strip the bodies of their independence and could allow political interference, while failing to address any potential Kremlin-linked operatives. On Tuesday, thousands of Ukrainians defied martial law – which has been in place since the beginning of Russia's war – to take to the streets of Kyiv and other major cities to protest against the law. European officials also questioned the law, noting that addressing corruption remains a core requirement both for Ukraine's future European Union membership and in assuring aid flows to combat Russia. Amid the pressure, Zelenskyy backed away from the new law, promising to submit new legislation that would assure 'all the norms for the independence of anti-corruption institutions will be in place' and that there would be no Russian 'influence or interference'. Opposition lawmakers have also separately prepared their own legislation to revoke the law passed on Tuesday. 'They heroically solved the problems that they created just as heroically. Grand imitators,' Yaroslav Zhelezniak, from the opposition Holos party, said on Telegram, criticising Zelenskyy and his allies about-turn. Before the new draft bill's introduction, Zelenskyy spoke with the leaders of Germany and the United Kingdom on Thursday. In a statement, Zelenskyy's office said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had 'offered to involve experts who could contribute to long-term cooperation' on the issue. In a post on X, Zelenskyy said he invited Friedrich Merz to 'join the expert review of the bill'. 'Friedrich assured me of readiness to assist,' he said. It was not immediately clear when Ukraine's legislature, the Verkhovna Rada, would vote on the new bill.
