A major Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv kills 4, injures 27

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a major missile and drone attack on Kyiv early Friday, killing four people, starting fires and scattering debris across many districts of the capital, Ukrainian authorities said.

At least 27 people were injured as emergency crews responded to multiple strikes during the night, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration. At least 430 drones and 18 missiles were used in the attack across the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

He said the attack, which also targeted Odesa in the south and Kharkiv in the northeast, was mostly aimed at Kyiv, where drones and missiles smashed into high-rise apartment blocks.

“A specially calculated attack to cause as much harm as possible to people and civilians,” Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. He added the Azerbaijan Embassy was damaged by fragments of an Iskander missile.

Moscow officials deny they target civilian areas, but Ukrainian officials dismiss that claim.

Friday’s attack was the biggest on Kyiv in almost three weeks. Most recent Russian aerial attacks have aimed at electricity infrastructure around the country ahead of the bitter winter months.

Fifteen people were hospitalized, including one man in critical condition and a pregnant woman, after a series of powerful explosions echoed across the city and air defenses were activated.

‘My hair was on fire’

Kyiv residents told of harrowing escapes and near misses in the dead of night.

Mariia Kalchenko said it was a miracle she survived after her building was hit.

“I didn’t hear anything, I just realized that my hair was on fire,” the 46-year-old volunteer rescue dog handler told The Associated Press.

She turned on her flashlight and saw that her dog had moved away in fright. “I turned around and saw that there was no wall, and there was a neighbor’s apartment, the neighbor was screaming, there was no door, and the flames were going from the front door into the apartment,” she said.

Oleh Hudyma, 59, said she became aware of the attack and intended to go to a bomb shelter but she wasn’t quick enough.

“I got up, got dressed, went out, and there was an explosion. I couldn’t hear the (drone) engine running, just an explosion, flames, everything flew,” she said. “I was in the kitchen and just fell to the floor.”

City authorities warned that power and water outages are possible.

Eight of the capital’s 10 districts reported damage. Emergency crews fought fires in apartment blocks, debris from explosions was strewn across yards and cars parked in the streets were set ablaze.

In the wider Kyiv region, Russian strikes damaged critical infrastructure and private homes, injuring at least one civilian, the head of the regional military administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, said. A 55-year-old man in Bila Tserkva suffered burns and was hospitalized, he said. Fires broke out in private houses in the capital’s suburbs.

The strike came as European Union officials warned this week that Ukraine must continue to crack down on corruption following a major graft scandal that has put top nuclear energy officials under scrutiny. But they also offered assurances that aid will continue to flow as Kyiv strains to hold back Russia’s invasion.

Russia says it shot down 216 Ukrainian drones

In response to Russia’s continuing onslaught, Ukraine has launched its own domestically developed drones and missiles against targets on Russian soil, especially oil refineries and depots that provide Moscow with income and manufacturing plants that supply the armed forces.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that its air defense forces shot down 216 Ukrainian drones overnight over a number of Russian regions and annexed Crimea.

Most drones — 66 — were intercepted over the southern Krasnodar region that borders Crimea. A total of 45 drones were destroyed over the Saratov region deeper inside Russia. Another 19 were shot down over Crimea.

In Novorossiysk, a port city in the Krasnodar region, the attack damaged an oil depot at the Sheskharis transshipment complex, as well as unidentified “coastal structures,” local authorities said. According to the Meduza independent news outlet, Sheskharis is one of the largest oil loading complexes for transshipment of oil and oil products in the south of Russia. It is managed by Transneft.

Falling drone debris also damaged a civilian vessel in the port, and three crew members have been hospitalized with injuries. Several residential buildings were also damaged, and a man from one of those buildings was hospitalized with injuries.

In the Saratov region, Gov. Roman Busargin said that the attack damage unspecified “civilian infrastructure.” Unconfirmed media reports say that an oil refinery was hit.

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