1 month ago
35
Kyiv has experienced one of its worst bombardments since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with at least four people killed in what Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a “vile and brutal” attack.
Russia launched about 500 drones and more than 40 missiles, Ukraine’s president said, in a bombardment that lasted more than 12 hours over Saturday night and into Sunday morning. The main targets were the Ukrainian capital and the Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Odesa regions.
Zelenskyy said the onslaught was the “virtual culmination” of last week’s UN general assembly meeting, at which Donald Trump express support for Ukraine. The US president called on allies to stop all Russian oil imports and promised Ukraine would “strike back”.
“This is how Russia is making its real position known. Moscow wants to continue to fight and kill and deserves only the harshest pressure in the world,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
“The Kremlin benefits from continuing this war and terror as long as there are energy funds and a shadow navy.”
Kyiv echoed with the sound of anti-aircraft fire early on Sunday as waves of drones arrived in a grey dawn sky. Residents scrambled to take cover as air raid sirens blared. A missile struck a row of houses in the Petropavlivska Borshchahivka district, sheering off several upper floors.
A falling concrete slab crushed and killed a 12-year-old girl. A nurse and patient also died when Kyiv’s cardiology institute suffered a direct hit. Another person was found dead buried under debris at a residential block, officials said.
“At 6am there was a huge explosion. Everything started falling on our heads,” Lolita Isakova, 24, said. “We started to run in panic. My neighbour was covered in blood. He was looking for his wife and daughter. Everyone was screaming. We could hear booms.
“Russia is a terrorist state. Fuck them.”
Mark Serhiyiv, a 35-year-old army chaplain, said it was the second time Russian forces had destroyed his home.
“I still can’t believe that the children are alive. It’s such a blessing from God. They were right under the roof when it hit them. The roof was torn off right above my eldest son’s bed,” he said.
“I’m from Melitopol. They occupied the city and took my home. I moved to Kyiv in 2024. Our Russian neighbour is crazy. They shoot and deliberately kill civilians. This is our reality.”
More than 70 people were injured across the country, including three children whose apartment was hit in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia. On Sunday morning firefighters in Kyiv doused a burning car. Rescue workers and a digger shovelled up debris against a backdrop of smashed masonry and twisted rebar.
“Once again, residential buildings and infrastructure are being hit. Once again, it is a war against civilians,” the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said. “There will be a response to these actions. But the west’s economic blows against Russia must also be stronger.”
Poland’s military said it had scrambled fighter jets and put ground-based air defence systems on high alert in response to the latest Russian strikes on Ukraine. The moves were preventive and intended to secure Polish airspace and protect citizens, especially in border areas with Ukraine, the military said.
Poland also closed the airspace near its south-eastern cities of Lublin and Rzeszów, a key hub for aid to Ukraine, for several hours.
Speaking on Saturday in Kyiv after meeting Trump at the UN in New York, Zelenskyy said Russia was preparing for a wider European conflict. “Putin will not wait to finish his war in Ukraine. He will open up some other direction. Nobody knows where. He wants that,” he said.
He said the Kremlin was deliberately checking Europe’s capacity to protect its skies, after drone sightings in Denmark, Poland and Romania and the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets. Denmark’s army said on Sunday that drones had been spotted flying over Danish military sites for the second night running.
Zelenskyy suggested EU governments were struggling to deal with this new and dangerous threat. Ukraine spotted 92 drones flying towards Poland in a “choreographed” way earlier this month. It intercepted most of them, but 19 crossed into Polish territory, where four were shot down.
Russia has denied that it is responsible for the incursions or that it plans to attack any Nato country. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told the UN general assembly “any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response”.
Speaking later to reporters, Lavrov said that if any country downs objects still within Russian airspace, “they will very much regret it”.
