Kyiv hit by deadly Russian missile and drone attack – officials – BBC
2025-04-24T10:02:10Z
At least eight people were killed and dozens injured in overnight Russian strikes on Ukraine’s capital, officials say.
Kyiv hit by deadly Russian missile and drone attack – officials
23 hours ago Share Save Jaroslav Lukiv BBC News Reporting from London Jon Donnison • @jondonnisonbbc Correspondent Reporting from Kyiv Share Save
Moment Russian missile hits Kyiv in deadliest attack since July
At least eight people have been killed and more than 80 others injured, including children, in an overnight Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, local officials say. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said falling drone wreckage triggered a number of fires, and it was feared people were trapped under the rubble of a residential building. Blasts were also reported in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, injuring at least two people, the mayor said. After the attacks, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky announced he would cut short a diplomatic visit to South Africa.
Ukraine’s state emergency service DSNS and the interior ministry had initially said nine people were killed in Kyiv in the overnight Russian attack, which involved some 70 missiles and up to 150 drones. Ukraine’s interior minister later revised the initial death toll down to eight, explaining that the ninth fatality was believed to be body parts from other victims. In a post on social media, Mayor Klitschko wrote that six children and a pregnant woman were among those injured. Interior minister Ihor Klymenko said “phone calls can be heard from the wreckage”. Two children were reported missing, he said. An apartment block was completely flattened during the attack and the windows of surrounding buildings were blown out and balconies ripped down. Emergency services continue to search through the rubble and rescue teams with sniffer dogs have been seen combing through the wreckage.
The worst-hit area in the overnight strikes was the western Svyatoshynskyi district, Klitschko said. Kyiv officials said five other districts were hit, including Holosiivskyi in the south, Solomyanskyi district in the south-west and Shevchenkivskyi district in the west. Footage on social media appears to show missiles hitting the city, triggering huge blazes. The attacks came hours after US President Donald Trump accused Zelensky of harming peace negotiations. Zelensky has ruled out recognising Russian control of Crimea, a southern Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin went on to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls almost 20% of Ukrainian territory. Trump said on Wednesday that Crimea “was lost years ago”, but Zelensky pointed to a 2018 “Crimea declaration” by Trump’s then secretary of state Mike Pompeo that said the US “rejects Russia’s attempted annexation”. A woman whose apartment was badly damaged in the latest attack on Kyiv told the BBC she fled twice from her hometown in the east of Ukraine, an area that is now occupied by Russia. When asked whether Zelensky should give up those territories to get a peace deal done, she said no, because it would be “against our constitution”. Thursday’s attack is one of the deadliest on Kyiv since 8 July last year, when 34 people were confirmed dead and 121 injured after Russian strikes hit civilian infrastructure including the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital.
Reuters Rescuers in Kyiv have been combing through the wreckage of a residential building destroyed in an overnight Russian attack
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