Russia launched overnight missile and drone strikes on Kyiv, killing at least eight people, including a 6-year-old boy, and injuring 82 others, Ukrainian officials said Thursday.
Ten children, the youngest being a 5-month-old girl, were among the injured, Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said. A large part of a nine-story residential building collapsed after it was struck, he said.
Rescue teams were at the scene searching for people trapped under the rubble.
Yana Zhabborova, 35, a resident of the damaged building, woke up to the sound of thundering explosions, which blew off the doors and windows of her home.
"It is just stress and shock that there is nothing left,” said Zhabborova, a mother of a 5-month-old infant and a 5-year-old child.
Russia fired 309 Shahed and decoy drones and eight Iskander-K cruise missiles overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted and jammed 288 strike drones and three missiles. Five missiles and 21 drones struck targets.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that it had shot down 32 Ukrainian drones overnight.
A drone attack had sparked a blaze at an industrial site in Russia’s Penza region, local Gov. Oleg Melnichenko said. He didn't immediately give further details other than to say that there were no casualties.
In the Volgograd region, some trains were also halted after drone wreckage fell on local railway infrastructure, state rail operator Russian Railways said.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said that its forces took full control of the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Russian and Ukrainian troops have battled for control of Chasiv Yar for nearly 18 months. It includes a hilltop from which troops can attack other key points in the region that form the backbone of Ukraine’s eastern defenses.
Victor Trehubov, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, told The Associated Press that Russia’s claim was untrue.
"Just a fabrication, there wasn’t even a change in the situation," he said.
A report on Thursday from Ukraine’s Army General Staff said there were seven clashes in Chasiv Yar in the past 24 hours. An attached map showed most of the town as being under Russian control.
DeepState, an open-source Ukrainian map widely used by the military and analysts, showed early Thursday that neighborhoods to the south and west of Chasiv Yar remained as so-called gray zones, or uncontrolled by either side.
The attack targeted the Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Sumy, and Mykolaiv regions, with Ukraine's capital being the primary target, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
"Today, the world once again saw Russia’s answer to our desire for peace with America and Europe,” Zelenskyy said. "New demonstrative killings. That is why peace without strength is impossible.”
He called on Ukraine’s allies to follow through on defense commitments and pressure Moscow toward real negotiations.
At least 27 locations across Kyiv were hit by the attack, Tkachenko said, with the heaviest damage seen in the Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts. More than 100 buildings were damaged in Kyiv, including homes, schools, kindergartens, medical facilities and universities, he said.
Plumes of smoke emanated from a partially damaged building and debris was strewn on the ground. The force of the blast wave was powerful enough to leave clothes hanging limply from trees.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline, Aug. 8, for peace efforts to make progress, or Washington will impose punitive sanctions and tariffs.
Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in U.S.-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land.
