Russia launched a massive combined missile and drone strike on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday. According to preliminary reports, at least 28 people were killed and more than 100 injured. Rescue workers are still digging through the rubble in search of survivors at the site of a nine-story apartment building that officials say was directly hit by a ballistic missile. There are fears that people may still be trapped. Here’s what we know so far about the deadly attack on Ukraine’s capital.
Update: On Wednesday, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that the toll from the strikes on Kyiv had risen to 28 people killed and more than 140 injured. Earlier, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that Kyiv had declared June 18 a day of mourning.
Russian forces carried out a large-scale missile and drone strike on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, overnight on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 50, according to preliminary reports.
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said the attack hit residential buildings, schools, and critical infrastructure.
In the city’s Solomianskyi district, part of a residential building collapsed, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Klymenko later clarified that the nine-story apartment building was hit by a Russian ballistic missile. “The section was demolished down to the basement because it was a direct strike,” he said.
“There may still be people trapped under the rubble. We do not rule out the possibility that the death toll could rise,” Klitschko said, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda. He added that 55 people were injured in the strike, 40 of whom were hospitalized.
Among the injured were three children, according to Ukrainska Pravda. Later, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said the number of injured had risen to 99, with 59 people hospitalized.
An air raid alert lasted about nine hours in Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office. In the city’s Darnytskyi district, several apartments were damaged in a residential building after a fire broke out following the attack. Another fire broke out on the upper floors of an apartment building in the Shevchenkivskyi district.
Debris also struck a dormitory belonging to the Kyiv Aviation Institute, according to the university’s rector, Kseniia Semenova. She said there were injuries, though she did not specify how many.
Tkachenko said Russian forces launched 175 drones and 14 missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region, including two ballistic missiles.
In total, Russian forces launched 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. In addition to Kyiv and the surrounding region, the attacks targeted the Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, and Mykolaiv regions.
“Right now in Kyiv, rescue crews are trying to pull people from the rubble of an ordinary apartment building. We don’t yet know how many,” Zelensky said. “The Russians destroyed an entire section of the building. Altogether, homes were damaged in eight districts of Kyiv. Recovery efforts are still underway in Odesa, and emergency workers are responding at every impact site. Everyone affected is receiving the necessary assistance. So far, we know of 75 people who were injured.”
According to Zelensky, 15 people were killed in the overnight attack on Ukraine.
“These kinds of attacks are pure terrorism. And the entire world — the U.S. and Europe — must finally respond the way any civilized society responds to terrorists,” the Ukrainian president said. “Putin is doing this simply because he can afford to keep waging war. He wants the war to go on.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry stated that in the early hours of June 17, its forces carried out a group strike using precision weapons and drones “on Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv region and Zaporizhzhia.” “The strikes achieved their objective. All designated targets were hit,” the ministry said.
