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Russia has launched its most lethal assault of 2026 on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as well as other cities, resulting in the deaths of 16 individuals, among them a 12-year-old child, and leaving many others wounded due to drone and missile attacks.
Throughout the night, parts of the capital were engulfed in uncontrollable fires, casting thick plumes of black smoke into the sky, while firefighters battled to extinguish numerous infernos.
By Thursday morning, residents alongside emergency workers were clearing the debris that littered the areas around severely damaged structures in the city.
In Kyiv, four fatalities were reported, including the young child, according to the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, on Thursday.
The strikes also claimed the lives of nine people in Odesa and two more in the southeastern city of Dnipro, where Russian raids ignited residential areas, as stated by regional authorities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the night had proven that Russia did not deserve any easing of global policy or lifting of sanctions, with 100 people wounded alongside those killed.
“There can be no normalisation of Russia as it is today. Pressure on Russia must work. And it is important to fulfil every promise of assistance to Ukraine on time,” he said.
In March, the US temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil that had already been loaded onto tankers for export, with US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent describing the move as a “short-term measure” intended to “promote stability in world energy markets”.
The 30-day waiver expired on 11 April and Bessent has said it would not be renewed.
‘Immoral, counterproductive, and dangerous’
Ukrainian air force units shot down or neutralised 31 missiles and 636 drones, but 12 missiles and 20 drones hit in the 24 hours to 7am on Thursday, the air force said.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Oleksiy Kuleba, said rescue operations were ongoing and the toll could rise, while the country’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, urged the international community to act.
“All decisions required to increase pressure on the aggressor must be unblocked now,” he said on X.
“It is immoral, counterproductive, and dangerous to delay sanctions against Russia or packages of support for Ukraine.”
Klitschko said that Kyiv came under another attack early on Thursday, adding that a drone, flying very low, slammed into an 18-storey building.
Prosecutors put the number of injured in the city at 54.
Klitschko said rescue teams had rescued a mother and child from a building in a central district where the ground floor was badly damaged.
He also said missile debris had hit the sixth floor of an apartment building in the central Podil district.
A large fire had broken out in a building in a district in the north of the capital and four emergency medical workers were injured, while debris had fallen in several locations, Klitschko said.
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