KIEV (Reuters)-Russia bombed Kiev with the biggest drone attack on the war, injuring at least 23 people and damaging buildings throughout the capital, hours after US President Donald Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, authorities said on Friday.
The air strike sirens, the tinnitus of the Kamikaze drones and the thick detonations reverberated from early evening until dawn, when Russia launched what the Ukraine Air Force said it was a total of 539 drones and 11 missiles.
Families pledged in underground subway stations in search of shelter. A smoke hovered over the city center.
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Outside an apartment building damaged by a drone, the residents watched the situation while the cleaning service began. Some cried. Others watched in silence.
“I woke up with the sound of explosions, first the Shahed drones began to zombir and then the explosions began,” said resident Maria Hilchenko, 40.
“Then people started screaming outside. Drone explosions didn’t stop.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is to talk to Trump later on Friday about the war and a US break in some air defense missile deliveries, called the “deliberately massive and cynical” attack.
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“Notably, the first air strike alerts in our cities and regions yesterday began to sound almost simultaneously with press publications talking about a telephone call between President Trump and Putin,” Zelensky said at X.
“Once again, Russia is showing that it has no intention of ending war and terror,” he added, asking for greater pressure on Russia and more air defense equipment.
Kiev authorities said the attack has damaged about 40 apartments, passenger infrastructure, five schools and kindergarten, cafes and many cars in six of the 10 Kiev districts. Poland said the consular section of its embassy was damaged in downtown Kiev, adding that employees were not injured.
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Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at Telegram that 14 of the injured were taken to the hospital.
Ukrzalizanysia state railway company, the country’s largest carrier, said at Telegram that the attack on Kiev forced them to divert several passenger trains, causing delays.
Damage were recorded on both sides of Largo Rio Dnipro, which cuts the capital, and the drop in drill wreckage on fire in the Holosiivskyi district, Klitschko said.
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Russian air strikes against Kiev have intensified in recent weeks and included some of the most deadly attacks of the war against the city of three million.
