KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia hit Ukraine’s capital with drone and missiles Sunday in the largest aerial attack on the country since the war began, killing at least two people and leaving smoke rising from the roof of a key government building.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 810 drones and decoys, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine´s Air Force, confirmed to The Associated Press that Sunday´s attack was the largest Russian drone strike since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Russia also launched 13 missiles of various types.
Ukraine shot down and neutralized 747 drones and 4 missiles, according to a statement from the Air Force.
Hits from nine missiles and 54 drones were recorded at 33 locations across Ukraine, and the debris of shot down targets fell at eight locations, the Air Force said.
Associated Press reporters saw a plume of smoke rising from the roof of Kyiv´s cabinet of ministers building, but it was not immediately clear if the smoke was the result of a direct hit or debris, which would mark an escalation in Russia´s air campaign, which has so far spared government buildings in the city center.
The building is the home of Ukraine’s Cabinet, housing the offices of its ministers. Police blocked access to the building as fire trucks and ambulances arrived.
Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said two people were killed and 20 were injured in the attack.
“For the first time, the government building was damaged by an enemy attack, including the roof and upper floors,” said Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. “We will restore the buildings, but lost lives cannot be returned.”
“The world must respond to this destruction not only with words, but with actions. There is a need to strengthen sanctions pressure – primarily against Russian oil and gas,” she said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy echoed her sentiment in an online statement. “Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have started long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” he said. He called for sanctions on Russia and for strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses.
“Every additional (air defense) system saves civilians from these vile strikes. The world can force the Kremlin criminals to stop killing; only political will is needed,” Zelenskyy said.
The two people killed were a mother and her 3-month-old child, whose bodies were dug out of the rubble by rescuers, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration. Initially Tkachenko said the child was 1 year old. At least 10 locations in Kyiv were damaged in the attack, he added.
Russian drones struck a nine-story residential building in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district and a four-story residential building in Darnytskyi district, according to Klitschko. Tkachenko said these were direct hits.
The Russian military said Sunday that it used aviation, drones, missiles and artillery to strike military-industrial targets in Ukraine, including drone assembly and storage sites, military airfields, two air defense radar stations and troop positions.
Sunday’s attack is the second mass Russian drone and missile attack to target Kyiv in the span of two weeks, as hopes for peace talks wane.
The attack comes after European leaders pressed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to work to end the war after 26 of Ukraine’s allies pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once the fighting ends.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to meet Putin to negotiate a peace agreement, and has urged U.S. President Donald Trump to put punishing sanctions on Russia to push it to end the war.
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