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Russia mounted an intense missile and drone barrage of the Ukrainian capital overnight, killing three people, Ukrainian officials said, as powerful explosions reverberated across the city.
The attack followed a warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin, conveyed via United States leader Donald Trump, that the Kremlin would hit back after Ukrainian drones destroyed several strategic bomber aircraft in attacks deep inside Russia.
Kyiv’s military administration said three people were killed in the missile and drone salvo against the capital. They were first responders who had rushed to the scene of one of the strikes, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.
“Overnight, Russia ‘responded’ to its destroyed aircraft … by attacking civilians in Ukraine … Multi-storey buildings hit. Energy infrastructure damaged,” foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out the strike on military and military-related targets in response to what it called Ukrainian “terrorist acts” against Russia.
“Everything that is taking place within the framework of the special military operation (in Ukraine), everything that is being done by our military on a daily basis, is a response to the actions of the Kyiv regime, which has acquired all the characteristics of a terrorist regime,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
In one of the most audacious attacks of the war between Ukraine and Russia, Ukrainian spies last weekend destroyed a claimed US$7 billion ($10.8 billion) worth of Russian strategic bomber aircraft on the ground using quadrocopter drones hidden in wooden sheds.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the mission — dubbed Operation Spider’s Web — “our most long-range operation” in more than three years of war.
The Kremlin was planning an unspecified response to the Ukrainian attack on Russian air bases, Trump said after a telephone conversation with Putin on Wednesday.
“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump said after the conversation.
Russia has also accused Ukraine of being behind a deadly bomb attack on a bridge over a railway line in western Russia at the weekend that was blown up just as a train carrying 388 passengers to Moscow was passing underneath.
Seven people were killed and 155 injured in the incident, which Kyiv has not taken responsibility for.
Zelenskyy calls for pressure on Russia after attacks
Zelenskyy said 49 people nationwide had been injured in the attacks on Kyiv, which also struck several other towns and cities, as he called on Ukraine’s Western allies to ramp up pressure on Russia.
The air force said Russia had used 407 drones, one of the largest numbers recorded in a single attack. Forty-five cruise and ballistic missiles were also fired, it said.
Kyiv’s metro transport system was disrupted by a Russian strike that hit and damaged tracks between stations, the military administration said. The state rail company said it was also diverting some trains due to rail damage outside the city.
Reuters witnesses reported a series of booming explosions powerful enough to rattle windows far from the impact sites.
Some Kyiv residents sought shelter in metro stations, or in underground car parks.
In the capital’s Solomianskyi district, a Russian drone slammed into the side of an apartment building, leaving a gaping hole and burn marks, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.
Falling concrete blocks from the building crushed cars parked below. Two police investigators were examining what appeared to be the drone’s engine.
Earlier in the night, Reuters reporters heard the sound of Russian kamikaze drones buzzing in the sky, accompanied by the sounds of outgoing fire from Ukrainian anti-aircraft batteries.
The Russian military said in its statement that it had used long-range weapons to strike Ukraine.
“In response to terrorist acts by the Kyiv regime, the Russian Armed Forces carried out a massive strike overnight with long-range air, sea and land-based precision weapons,” the ministry said.
It said the strike had targeted “Ukrainian design bureaus, enterprises for the production and repair of weapons and military equipment, assembly workshops for strike drones, flight training centres, and Ukrainian armed forces weapons and military equipment depots.”
“The objective of the strike was achieved. All designated targets were hit.”
In response to the strikes, Zelenskyy called for concerted pressure on Russia.
“If someone is not applying pressure and is giving the war more time to take lives – that is complicity and accountability. We must act decisively,” he wrote on X.
As well as Kyiv, Russian forces also struck industrial facilities and infrastructure in the western city of Ternopil, leaving parts of it without power, Mayor Serhii Nadal said.
The regional administration said the attack had injured 10 people and recommended that residents temporarily stay inside due to a high concentration of toxic substances in the air after a fire.
Fifteen people were injured in the northwestern city of Lutsk where an attack damaged private homes, educational institutions and a government building, prosecutors said.
The Ukrainian military said it had launched a pre-emptive strike overnight on the Engels and Dyagilevo airfields in the Russian regions of Saratov and Ryazan, in addition to striking at least three fuel reservoirs.
