Russian forces launched a major missile and drone attack on Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least nine people in the city, and injuring more than 60, the Ukrainian authorities said, the most deadly attack on the Ukrainian capital since last summer.
Explosions could be heard throughout the night; clouds of brown smoke rose over the city as the sun came up. One missile hit a two-story building with eight apartments where emergency workers hunted for survivors Thursday morning. A five-story building next door lost all of its windows. People stood outside, staring at the damage and talking on their phones, telling loved ones that they were alive. No military target was visible nearby.
An emergency service spokeswoman, Svitlana Vodolaha, told reporters at 8:30 a.m. local time: “Just now we dug out another person. Alive!”
Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, posted a video on social media showing emergency workers outside a building that had been turned to rubble. “Once again, Russia strikes civilians,” he said.
Drones and cruise missiles also hit Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, the country’s second-largest city, wounding at least two people, said the city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov. One strike hit a residential neighborhood where rescue work continued early Thursday, he said. The total number of dead or injured throughout the country wasn’t known Thursday morning.
The attack is one of the deadliest of the war on Kyiv and the worst missile attack on the city since last July, when Russian missiles killed 41 people in Ukraine, destroying a children’s hospital in Kyiv and killing 21 people throughout the city. Recent deadly missile strikes have also targeted the cities of Sumy and Kryvyi Rih.
It comes at a crucial time in the war, which started with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. On Easter, a temporary truce called by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia seemed like more of a public-relations stunt than an actual cease-fire along the front lines, but still, there were no drone or missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. On Wednesday, planned peace talks in London were downgraded, largely because the U.S. decided not to attend.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has echoed Kremlin talking points in the war and on Ukraine, a reversal of previous U.S. policy. Over the past week, the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to walk away from the peace process. And on Wednesday, President Trump and his top aides demanded that Kyiv accept an American-designed plan that would seemingly grant Russia all the territory it has gained in the war, while offering Kyiv only vague assurances about the country’s future security.
So far, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky has rejected such a deal.
Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn from Kyiv, Ukraine.
