Russia targeted Kiev in a drone and missile attack that lasted for 11 hours till Thursday morning. In this, at least 21 civilians of the city were killed and many people were injured. Moscow says that this attack was carried out in revenge for Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil bases. After which the capital of Ukraine was shaken by loud explosions. According to Kyiv Metro, more than 50,000 people took shelter in subway stations after authorities issued an air raid warning. Rescue workers searched for people buried under the debris throughout the day. Many apartment buildings had collapsed and burned to the ground.
Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the bombing was a response to a recent spate of long-range attacks by Ukraine. These attacks have caused a severe fuel shortage and increased pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine's sustained attacks inside Russia, which Zelensky has called a 40-day 'blitz', have particularly targeted oil refineries. This has created a fuel crisis, which is troubling the Russian people who are already facing the economic burden of the war.
Ukraine's technological advances in drone engineering in recent months have given it an edge, more than four years after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor, analysts and Western officials say. They say Ukrainian attacks on supply routes behind the front line have slowed the Russian army on the battlefield and made its advance slow and costly.
Kiev's forces have especially targeted the supplies to Crimea. This has created the worst fuel crisis in the Black Sea peninsula since it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Besides, this has also dealt a blow to the Kremlin's claim that Moscow is winning the war. Ukrainian officials say they are trying to bring Putin to the negotiating table, but so far Moscow has hit back.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war, including recent efforts by the Trump administration, have yielded no results. President Donald Trump and Zelensky are expected to attend the NATO summit in Türkiye next week. Experts say that Putin feels that time is in his favor. They feel that Western support will diminish and that Ukraine's resistance will eventually break under the pressure of strategic bombing.
According to the country's emergency service, 21 people died in this attack in Kiev. There is news of more than 90 people being injured. Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiha said that it was a dreadful night in the capital. Before the war the population here was around 30 lakhs. The night was illuminated by the glow of exploding drones and missiles and loud explosions echoed across Kiev. A plume of black smoke was rising into the sky and lines of light emanating from air defense firing were visible in the air.
Officials said there was damage at more than 30 places across the city, including about 20 residential buildings. Serhiy Budko, a resident of Kiev, said that three or four ballistic missiles fell in his area of the city. Budko, 24, said, we were inside the shelter and we felt the shelter shaking, the roof and the floor, everything was shaking.
In Kiev's Desnyansky district, people were trapped inside a damaged nine-story building, and in the Darnitsky district, much of a nine-story building collapsed. At the same time, in the central Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine, a 7-year-old girl was killed and four others were injured in a Russian attack, including an 11-year-old girl. All of them were members of the same family. This information was given by the head of the area, Oleksandr Hanzha.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the bombings were carried out only on military or military-related targets. Russian air strikes on Ukraine have repeatedly targeted civilian areas. According to the United Nations, more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in this war.
There is no definite data available regarding casualties on the battlefield. A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (a think tank) earlier this year estimated that up to 1.8 million soldiers on both sides were killed, wounded or missing, the majority of whom were Russian soldiers.
According to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry, the attack used precision long-range weapons and drones to hit weapons factories and energy facilities in and around Kiev, and military airfield infrastructure in other parts of Ukraine. Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia fired a total of 74 missiles and 496 drones in this attack.
Ukraine's air defense capability has improved during the war, especially in countering Russian drones. But it is difficult to stop ballistic missiles. About one-third of the missiles fired overnight were ballistic missiles.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Sibiha had said in April that the country's arms manufacturing factories meet up to 75% of the army's needs. But he and other Ukrainian officials have appealed to allies to supply more Patriot systems, which offer the best protection against Russian air attacks.
Ukrainian forces attacked one of Russia's largest oil refineries in the Nizhny Novgorod region, east of Moscow, overnight, causing a fire. This information was given by the General Staff of Ukraine. Additionally, the Ukrainian army also attacked the railway bridge over the Siversky Donets river in the Russian-occupied Luhansk area. According to the General Staff, the Russian Army used this bridge to transport soldiers, weapons and military equipment.
