KYIV, June 23: Russian drones and missiles killed at least 10 civilians in Ukraine in nighttime attacks, local officials said Monday, with seven deaths reported in the capital, Kyiv, where emergency crews raced to find people believed trapped under the rubble of a partially collapsed apartment building.
Russia fired 352 drones and decoys overnight, as well as 11 ballistic missiles and five cruise missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defences intercepted or jammed 339 drones and 15 missiles before they could reach their targets, a statement said.
The strikes came nearly a week after a combined Russian attack on Ukraine last Tuesday killed 28 people in Kyiv, 23 of them in a residential building that collapsed after sustaining a direct missile hit.
Russian forces have for several months been trying to drive deeper into Ukraine as part of a renewed summer push along the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line, though the Institute for the Study of War said their progress has been limited.
“Russian forces have failed to make significant gains during this period of intensified offensive operations, however, due in part to the fact that Russian forces are largely relying on poorly trained infantry to make gains in the face of Ukraine’s drone-based defence,” the Washington-based think tank said late Sunday.
At the same time, Russia has pounded civilian areas with long-range strikes in an apparent attempt to weaken public morale.
Ukrainian leader notes role of Iran, North Korea
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said preliminary data indicated that Russian forces used North Korean missiles in the Kyiv strike. He called Russia, North Korea and Iran, which has provided drones to Russia, a “coalition of murderers” and warned of a potential spread of the “terror” if their alliance continues.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s defence and new ways to pressure Russia will be the two main topics in his visit to the United Kingdom on Monday. Zelenskyy was to meet with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London ahead of this week’s NATO summit in The Hague, Starmer’s office said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the latest strikes demonstrated Russia’s “unlimited cruelty,” by deliberately taking aim at civilian targets, and promised more European sanctions on Moscow.
Rescue workers search for survivors
Drones and missiles hit residential areas, hospitals and sports infrastructure in numerous districts across Kyiv in the early hours of Monday, emergency services said.
The most severe damage was in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv, where a section of a five-story apartment building collapsed.
Six people were killed in that district, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Ten others, including a pregnant woman, were rescued from a nearby high-rise that also sustained heavy damage in the blast.
Dozens of vehicles, some burned out and others mangled by flying debris from the blast, formed a snarl in the courtyard in front of the partly demolished building, which had collapsed down to the second floor.
Onlookers, some wrapped in blankets, watched tearfully as the cleanup operation took place. Dozens of volunteers worked to remove broken glass, downed tree branches and other debris.
Oleksii Pozychaniuk, 29, who lives in the building next to the one struck in the attack, said he heard the whistle of the rocket approaching from inside his apartment and “froze in terror” before feeling the impact.
“Windows burst out, glass was flying everywhere,” he said. “We barely made it downstairs with my child, everything here was on fire. We didn’t see the neighboring building yet because everything was covered in smoke, the cars were smoldering, tires were bursting from the high temperature which was also scary.”
Klitschko told reporters that rescue workers were still searching the collapsed building for survivors.
The Russian attack also damaged the entrance to the Sviatoshyn subway station in Kyiv, slightly injuring two people, said Timur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration. He said more than 30 people were injured across the city.
Since the early days of Russia’s invasion, underground subway stations have served as shelters for those seeking protection from aerial attacks. During almost nightly strikes, stations across Kyiv are often filled with people waiting out the danger.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian short-range drone attack killed two people and wounded 10 more in the Chernihiv region late Sunday night, authorities said. Three children were among the wounded, according to the regional administration head, Viacheslav Chaus.
Another person was killed and eight wounded overnight in the city of Bila Tserkva, around 85 kilometers (53 miles) southwest of the capital.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences shot down 23 Ukrainian drones overnight into Monday. (AP)
