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By Friday morning, Kyiv officials reported four dead and 20 injured, 16 of whom had been hospitalized. Rescuers were still operating at “several locations” while searching activities continued, said the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko. The underground metro was also hit after a strike damaged a train between stations and put it out of order.
Residential Areas on Fire
The attacks set off fires throughout residential buildings in Kyiv. In Darnytskyi, the district that covers the city’s east side, drones struck the upper floors of a high-rise apartment building, causing a fire and raising the potential for emergency power outages, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration.
Fires were also reported at an apartment building in a western district, while drone parts were discovered in at least three districts. There were also unconfirmed reports that a shopping center in the fire-hit area was ablaze.
Kyiv’s air force said both drones and Kalibr cruise missiles had been used in the coordinated attack. Throughout the city, windows were rattled by loud explosions strong enough to have been caused by the strikes, as well as drone buzz along with defensive fire from Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems.
Tensions Mount Over Ukrainian Attack on Russian Bombers
The attack came after a Ukrainian operation over the course of the weekend in which drones hidden in wooden sheds managed to destroy a number of Russia’s strategic bomber aircraft while they were on the ground. The action was one of Ukraine’s most daring operations yet in the course of the conflict.
Afterward, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone. Trump then claimed the Kremlin would now take measures to respond to the attack on its airbases. The following day, he wrote that one had to let the war in Ukraine and Russia heat up a little before peace talks could be pursued. Describing the two countries as “young children fighting like crazy in a park,” he said that removing them from each other too soon could fail to resolve the underlying problem.
