UKRAINE BURNS — Russian forces launch large-scale drone strikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 50, as drones and missiles struck residential buildings in what Russia said was a retaliation for recent attacks on its civil infrastructure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier warned of a possible overnight attack and said he was cutting short his visit to Dublin for the start of Ireland’s six-month term in the rotating presidency of the EU.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said 10 people were killed, while damage included six floors of an apartment building that had partially collapsed after a direct hit from a Russian projectile.
Reuters video footage showed emergency services working through the rubble of what used to be a nine-story building as the sun was rising over Kyiv and as fires flared up around the city.
Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said 56 people, including two children, were injured and three dozen locations across the city had been damaged in the attacks.
‘The enemy has once again deliberately targeted residential neighborhoods and killed civilians. We have sustained extensive damage and a significant number of casualties, including children,’ he wrote on Telegram.
In an earlier post, Klitschko said the injured included paramedics and drivers at an ambulance station, and that some people were still trapped inside damaged residential buildings.
Pictures posted online showed a fire burning out of control at the top of a building on the central Shevchenko Boulevard, while elsewhere in the city, windows blew out and cars were destroyed.
