Kyiv, June 17: A nighttime Russian missile and drone barrage on Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 others while they slept in their homes, local officials said Tuesday, with the main barrage centring on the capital Kyiv.
Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 others were injured in the city as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
It was one of the deadliest attacks on the Ukrainian capital in recent months and came as two rounds of direct peace talks have failed to make progress on ending the war, now in its fourth year.
Also, Russian drone strikes in the southern port city of Odesa killed one person and injured 17 people, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the regional administration.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “one of the most terrifying strikes on Kyiv” and said Russian forces fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine overnight.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “is doing this simply because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on. It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it,” Zelenskyy wrote.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said in a statement Tuesday that “the nature of the damage is direct hits on residential buildings. Rockets — from the upper floors to the basement.”
The attack lasted nearly nine hours and is the latest in a spate of mass drone and missile attacks on Kyiv. It occurred as world leaders convened at the Group of Seven meeting in Canada, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to attend. The summit runs through Tuesday.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko told reporters at the scene that a US citizen was killed in the attack after suffering wounds from shrapnel. Explosions could be heard for hours throughout the night on Tuesday.
Thirty apartments were destroyed in a single residential block after it was struck by a ballistic missile, Klymenko said.
“We have 27 locations that were attacked by the enemy. We currently have over 2,000 people working there, rescuers, police, municipal services and doctors,” he told reporters at the scene of one of the attacks.
Olena Lapyshniak, 49, was shaken from the attack that nearly leveled her apartment building. She heard a whistling sound and then two explosions that blew out her windows and doors.
“It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life,” she said. “There’s no military infrastructure here, nothing here, nothing. It’s horrible when people just die at night.”
People were wounded in the city’s Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts. Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said fires broke out in two other city districts as a result of falling debris from drones shot down by Ukrainian air defences.
Canada, which assumed the presidency of the G7 this year, invited Zelenskyy to the summit, where he is expected to hold one-on-one meetings with world leaders.
Zelenskyy was set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Canada on Tuesday, though the White House announced that Trump would return unexpectedly to Washington on Monday night instead of Tuesday night because of tensions in the Mideast.
Russia has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks. Moscow escalated attacks after Ukraine’s Security Service agency staged an audacious operation targeting war planes in air bases deep inside Russian territory.
Little progress has emerged from direct peace talks held in Istanbul, with the exception of prisoner exchanges, expected to conclude next week, Zelenskyy said. (AP)
