Russian ballistic missiles killed 12 people and injured more than 30 in Kyiv early on Thursday, authorities said, damaging buildings and severing power supply to parts of the Ukrainian capital, Reuters reported.
A fire broke out and the upper floors of a nine-storey residential block were destroyed in the city's Solomianskyi district, where seven people were killed, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, calling for Friday to be observed as a day of mourning. Klitschko said, via Telegram, that two other districts also suffered damage, with non-residential facilities, warehouses, a school and a children's hospital among the sites hit. Power company DTEK said it had restored electricity to more than half of the roughly 90,000 homes left without power in the capital following the attack.
Reuters said Russia has stepped up air attacks on Ukraine in recent months, seeking to exploit its smaller neighbour's critical shortage of interceptor missiles capable of downing ballistic weapons. The Russian defence ministry said Moscow had attacked Kyiv and the surrounding region with airstrikes and drones, striking facilities producing drone components, a military depot and a logistics hub, among other targets.
A Reuters witness reported hearing more than a dozen explosions. In the region surrounding the capital, another person was killed, an official said on Telegram. Ukraine's emergency service released footage showing servicemen battling a blaze and helping people escape buildings destroyed overnight.
Ukraine has also struck Russian targets
Reuters reported that Ukraine has increased its own attacks on Russia, targeting oil facilities and logistics infrastructure in an effort to undermine Moscow's capacity to sustain the war. Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to produce a lasting ceasefire in the conflict, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Separately, a drone crashed into Romania, a member of both NATO and the European Union, during the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Romanian defence ministry said on Thursday. A drone also crossed into Moldovan airspace, the country's military said.
Diplomatic track remains unresolved
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Ukraine had handed proposals to US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for a plan to end the war, and has repeatedly called for additional interceptor missiles to counter Russian strikes. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the newspaper Izvestia that Moscow had not received specific new proposals for possible meetings with US negotiators, but said Russia would be ready to arrange a meeting at short notice. Witkoff and Kushner were last in Moscow in January and have not yet visited Kyiv.
Source: Reuters
