Russian forces struck Kyiv with a wave of missiles and drones overnight into Thursday, collapsing a nine-story residential building and setting fire to a hotel in the city center, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Klitschko said emergency crews were working to free people trapped in the collapsed building in the capital’s Desnianskyi district. He reported additional fires — one on the roof of a residential high-rise in the Holosiivskyi district, another on the roof of a hotel along central Shevchenko Boulevard in the Shevchenkivskyi district.
Klitschko said the attack injured at least five people, including several medical workers responding to the scene. Rescue operations continued, and the full scope of casualties wasn’t immediately clear.
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AFP journalists in Kyiv’s central and eastern districts reported hearing more than a dozen explosions overnight. Residents took shelter in metro stations as air raid sirens sounded across the city.
The strike followed a warning from President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said hours earlier that intelligence pointed to Russia preparing another “massive strike” on the capital. Zelensky reportedly cut short a trip to Dublin over the threat.
The attack comes amid an escalating exchange between Moscow and Kyiv. Ukraine has ramped up long-range drone strikes on Russian territory in recent weeks, including a June assault that disabled the Moscow oil refinery and worsened fuel shortages across Russia. Russian officials had pledged retaliation.
Separately on Wednesday, a glide bomb strike on Kharkiv killed a 15-year-old boy and injured 32 civilians.
This is a developing story.
