KYIV – Kyiv was bombarded overnight by Russia’s second-biggest aerial attack since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with at least 19 people killed, including four children, according to officials. Buildings belonging to the European Union and the British Council were damaged in the strikes into Thursday, causing both the EU and the United Kingdom to summon the top Russian diplomats in their capitals. Among those killed are children aged 2, 17 and 14, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration.
Ukraine’s air force said that the Kremlin unleashed 629 air attack weapons on the country overnight, comprising 598 drones and 31 missiles. Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for the air force, told CNN that the strikes comprised “one of the largest combined attacks” on the country. Russia’s defense ministry said it struck “military-industrial complex enterprises and military air bases in Ukraine” using “high-precision weapons.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow is still interested in peace talks, but emphasized that the “special military operation,” Russia’s way of describing the war, “continues.” Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the assault a “horrific and deliberate killing of civilians” in a post on X. “These Russian missiles and attack drones today are a clear response to everyone in the world who, for weeks and months, has been calling for a ceasefire and for real diplomacy,” he said in an earlier post. Ukrainian authorities said hundreds of responders were sent to incidents in multiple locations, including a building used by the EU mission to Ukraine. The mission, which has been based in Kyiv since 1993, works to “promote the political and economic relations” between Ukraine and the EU, among other mandates, according to its website. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that she was “outraged” by the incident, calling it “another grim reminder of what is at stake.” “It shows that the Kremlin will stop at nothing to terrorize Ukraine, blindly killing civilians, men, women and children, and even targeting the European Union,” she said.
The EU chief spoke to both Zelensky and US President Donald Trump following the strikes, von der Leyen added in a post on X, also stating that Russian President Vladimir Putin “must come to the negotiating table.” The bloc is summoning the Russian envoy in Brussels in response to the attack, the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said.
A British Council building in Kyiv was also damaged by the strikes, according to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said that Putin is “killing children and civilians, and sabotaging hopes of peace.” London has summoned the Russian ambassador, British foreign secretary David Lammy said in a post on social media, adding: “the killing and destruction must stop.” Later Thursday, the Spanish foreign ministry said it had summoned the Russian embassy’s charge d’affaires in protest of the “unacceptable attack.” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Moscow of targeting diplomats “in direct breach of the Vienna convention” and called for “worldwide condemnation” in a statement on X. The White House’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, also condemned the overnight strikes, writing on X that “these egregious attacks threaten the peace that (Trump) is pursuing.”
The couple were getting ready to go to their building’s bomb shelter when there was an “explosion,” Protsiuk said. “I was buried,” he continued. “When I came out, everything was covered in dust and smoke. I looked up – the roof was gone, and the floors from the fourth to the first were completely destroyed.
“As of now, my wife hasn’t been found. Her phone doesn’t respond. She’s not listed anywhere. I don’t know… we’re still searching,” Protsiuk added. Residents endured an air raid alert lasting more than nine hours overnight, according to interior minister Ihor Klymenko.
Agency pictures showed locals flocking once more to subway stations where many spent the night. Residents were advised to “stay in shelters” during the strikes and the all-clear was announced shortly before 7am local time.
