Russia Pounds Kyiv in Deadly Barrage, At Least 15 Killed Including Children
Russia unleashed a massive wave of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine early Thursday, killing at least 15 people — including four children — in Kyiv, in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned as Moscow’s brutal response to renewed diplomatic efforts to end the war.
As dawn broke, emergency crews clawed through the rubble of a shattered apartment block on Kyiv’s left bank, where a Reuters correspondent witnessed workers pulling two lifeless bodies from the debris.
City officials confirmed at least 38 people were injured in the hours-long bombardment, which ravaged seven districts, damaging residential blocks as well as offices housing the European Union mission to Ukraine and the British Council.
Across the country, Ukraine’s military reported Russian strikes on 13 locations, while the national grid operator Ukrenergo confirmed energy facilities were also targeted, threatening fresh disruptions.
“Russia chooses missiles over negotiations,” Zelenskiy wrote on X, demanding tougher international sanctions. “It chooses to keep killing rather than to end this war.”
Russia’s Defence Ministry insisted the strikes hit “military industrial facilities and air bases,” repeating claims it does not target civilians — despite mounting evidence and dozens of civilian deaths in recent months from attacks on densely populated areas.
In Kyiv, residents endured one of the fiercest assaults in months. Explosions lit up the night sky, plumes of smoke billowed above the capital, and the buzzing of drones echoed across neighborhoods. Mayor Vitali Klitschko called it “one of the largest strikes on the city in recent times.”
The onslaught comes as Kyiv and its Western allies intensify efforts to revive peace talks including high-level meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and both the Ukrainian and Russian leaderships though progress remains elusive.
Meanwhile, Russia has ramped up long-range strikes deep inside Ukraine and is grinding forward in the east, hoping to force Kyiv into concessions by sheer destruction and pressure.
