The death toll from a large Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight on Thursday has risen to at least 31 people.
Five children — including a two-year-old — were among the victims of the strike which targeted several areas of the Ukrainian capital. Another 159, including 16 children, were injured, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the strike “vile” and said it “demonstrates the need for increased pressure on Moscow and additional sanctions.”
“In July alone, Russia used over 5,100 glide bombs against Ukraine, more than 3,800 Shaheds and nearly 260 missiles of various types – 128 of them ballistic,” Zelenskyy said.
“This can only be stopped through joint efforts – by America, Europe, and other global actors,” he added.
Russia has continued to strike Ukraine even as US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Moscow’s refusal to fully commit to a ceasefire deal.
On Tuesday, Trump shortened the deadline for Moscow to agree to a truce from 50 to 10 to 12 days. He has threatened to impose stricter sanctions on Russia should Russian President Vladimir Putin not agree to at least a temporary halt in Moscow’s all-out war on Ukraine, now well into its fourth year.
Despite Trump’s threats, Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched a total of 309 drones and eight missiles over the course of the night. Its air defences were able to shoot down most, although the city suffered multiple hits from cruise missiles.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he instructed Ukrainian embassies around the world to “open condolence books on this tragic day.”
“We value every sincere word and act of solidarity with the victims of Russian terror. And we also expect concrete action to help us stop it and restore a just peace,” Sybiha wrote in a post on X.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry announced that senior police lieutenant Liliia Stepanchuk was among the dead in Thursday’s attack, which collapsed a large part of a nine-storey residential building.
The city’s Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts were hit hardest of the city’s 27 districts targeted in the strike, the city’s military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said.
The attack blew out the windows of a hospital ward on impact, and a school, a kindergarten and a higher education institution were also damaged. At least 37 people had their homes destroyed.
Images from the scene on Thursday showed smoke billowing from a partially damaged building and debris on the ground. After the strike, residents defied orders not to return to the scene to retrieve their belongings.
Rescue efforts, which continued into a second day, have now been completed, with emergency restoration works underway at sites impacted by the strike.
Moscow launched an additional 72 UAVs against Ukraine overnight on Friday, with 28 hitting at least nine locations in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, and the wider Kyiv area, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
