Russia hits Ukrainian capital with missile, drone attack; six killed

Kyiv: Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least six people including a 6-year-old boy and wounding 52 others, authorities said Thursday.

The casualties were likely to rise, Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said. A large part of a nine-story residential building collapsed after it was struck, he said.

Rescue teams were at the scene searching for people trapped under the rubble.

Yana Zhabborova, 35, a resident of the damaged building, woke up to the sound of thundering explosions, which blew off the doors and windows of her home.

“It is just stress and shock that there is nothing left,” said Zhabborova, a mother of a five-month-old infant and a five-year-old child.

Russia fired 309 Shahed and decoy drones, and eight Iskander-K cruise missiles overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. Ukrainian air defences intercepted and jammed 288 strike drones and three missiles. Five missiles and 21 drones struck targets.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said Thursday that it had shot down 32 Ukrainian drones overnight.

A drone attacked had sparked a blaze at an industrial site in Russia’s Penza region, local Gov Oleg Melnichenko said. He didn’t immediately give further details other than to say that there were no casualties. In the Volgograd region, some trains were also halted after drone wreckage fell on local railway infrastructure, state rail operator Russian Railways said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry also said that its forces took full control of the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.