Russia launched a missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s capital overnight, resulting in at least six deaths, including a six-year-old boy, and injuring 52 others, according to authorities on Thursday.
Timur Tokachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, indicated that the casualty numbers could rise. He noted that a significant portion of a nine-story residential building collapsed as a result of the strike.
Rescue teams worked diligently at the scene, searching for individuals trapped beneath rubble.
Jana Zhabborova, a 35-year-old resident of the impacted building, reported being startled awake by the explosion that shattered her doors and windows. “It’s just stress and shocking to see that nothing is left,” she reflected, mentioning she is a mother to young children.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia deployed 309 drones, including Sharp and Decoy types, along with eight Iskander-K cruise missiles. Ukrainian defense systems intercepted 288 of these drones and three missiles.
Out of the offensive, five missiles and 21 drones successfully struck their targets.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed it shot down 32 Ukrainian drones overnight. Local official Oleg Melnichenko reported fires at industrial sites due to drone activity in Russia’s Penza region but said there were no casualties.
In the Volgograd area, some train services were disrupted due to drone debris landing on railways, as noted by Russian Railways.
The Russian military announced it had gained full control over the strategically important area of Chashiv Yah in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine. Ukrainian officials, who typically refrain from confirming retreats, did not immediately respond.
The battleground for Chashiv Yah has seen nearly 18 months of clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces. Control of the hill’s top provides a strategic vantage point for further operations in the region.
A report from the Ukrainian Army’s general staff noted seven confrontations at Chashiv Yah within the previous 24 hours, with maps indicating that most of the town was under Russian control. An open-source mapping tool, Deep State, illustrated that several nearby areas remained contested.
Targeted attacks continued in Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava, and Mikolayiv regions, with Kyiv primarily in the crosshairs, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Telegram updates.
“Today, the world has once again witnessed the outcome of Russia’s call for peace with the West,” Zelensky stated. “New empirical killings are evident. That’s why a superficial peace is unattainable.”
He urged international allies to exert pressure on defense commitments and encouraged actual negotiations with Moscow.
Following the attacks, smoke poured from damaged structures, with debris strewn across the ground. The force of the blasts was so intense that clothing remained hanging limply from nearby trees.
At least 27 locations in Kyiv experienced strikes, with the heaviest damage reported in the Solomianski and Sviatsinski districts.
In a related note, U.S. President Trump mentioned a shortened deadline to Russian President Putin during their talks, while Western leaders criticized Putin for stalling a peace initiative aimed at seizing more Ukrainian territory.
