Russia carried out a major overnight drone attack on the capital of Ukraine, killing at least 17 civilians and injuring dozens, in of the deadliest strikes on Kyiv in recent weeks.
The strikes, which lasted till Thursday morning, triggering air raid alerts across the city and sent residents rushing to shelters as explosions echoed through multiple places in the city. Ukrainian officials said emergency crews deployed in the affected residential areas, where damage to buildings and infrastructure was reported.
Several neighbourhood were evacuated as strikes rocked buildings throughout the city, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russia was preparing an attack.
Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, declared Friday a day of mourning and said around 90 people were injured. He said an ambulance station was among the places hit in the strikes.
Children were among the "significant number" of casualties, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv's military administration, said. "The enemy is once again deliberately targeting residential areas and killing civilians," he said early on Thursday.
The latest attack also comes amid Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities and military-linked infrastructure deep inside Russian territory, that has fueled the demands among Russian officials for a more robust response.
According to BBC, loud explosions were heard through the night. By 03:30 local time, "we had counted 10 significant strikes, with one major fire in the city center and multiple other blazes in the distance spotted," BBC's team reported.
On Wednesday, Zelensky ended his visit to Dublin early, saying new intelligence indicated that Russia was preparing to launch fresh strikes on Ukraine.
"I urge our people to be especially careful, to protect themselves, their children, and, of course, their families," he said. He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin "has been preparing this massive strike against Ukraine for some time now".
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The war, now deep into its fifth year, has increasingly been marked by large-scale drone and missile warfare far from the front lines, raising the humanitarian toll on civilians and complicating diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict.
Russia currently controls around 20% of Ukraine's territory, although not all of it was seized during the opening months of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia already controlled Crimea and parts of the Donbas before the invasion.
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