Russia’s latest missile and drone assault on Ukraine killed at least 14 civilians and left several dozen more injured late Monday, with nine deaths reported in Kyiv alone.
Moscow fired a volley of 352 drones and decoys, along with 11 ballistic missiles and five cruise missiles, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.
One of the ballistic missiles destroyed a high school in the Odessa region, killing two staff members, officials said, with a strike in Kyiv causing a five-story apartment building to collapse.
The heaviest damage was in the capital’s Shevchenkovskiy district, where ten others, including a pregnant woman, were rescued when a nearby high-rise building was hit, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
More than 30 people in the city were injured by that Russian onslaught, including two who were caught when a blast hit the entrance to the Sviatoshyn subway station, which has been serving as a shelter for people amid Moscow’s relentless attacks on civilians.
Along with the buildings, the drones and missiles hit residential areas, hospitals and sports infrastructures across the capital, according to emergency services.
Oleksii Pozychaniuk, 29, who lives in the building next to the one struck, said he “froze in terror” when feeling the ground quake at the force of the attacks.
“Windows burst out, glass was flying everywhere,” he told the Associated Press. “We barely made it downstairs with my child. Everything here was on fire.”
Meanwhile, in the Chernihiv region, two people were killed and another 10 wounded, including three children, according to the regional administration.
Another person was killed in the city of Bila Tserkva, about 53 miles southwest of the capital.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the overnight attack as “absolutely insane,” accusing Russia of using North Korean missiles to attack Kyiv.
Zelensky, who is visiting the UK and held a private meeting with King Charles III, labeled Russia, North Korea and Iran, which has provided Moscow with its deadly drones, the “coalition of murderers.”
The deadly attack comes just a week after Russia killed 28 people in Kyiv, 23 of whom died when a residential building collapsed following a direct missile strike.
The intense bombardments from Moscow are part of the Kremlin’s summer push along the 620-mile-long front line, where Russia has failed to make significant gains, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
“Russian forces are largely relying on poorly trained infantry to make gains in the face of Ukraine’s drone-based defense,” the ISW said in its latest assessment.
Zelensky said Ukraine’s defenses and new ways to pressure Russia will be the main topic points during his UK visit and looming NATO summit in The Hague.
With Post wires
