Russia Renews Deadly Kyiv Air Strikes With Third Attack in 24 Hours

Russia hit Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, with another wave of drone attacks on Monday night—the third wave of attacks on the city in the past 24 hours, officials said.

At least one person was killed and three others were injured when debris from a drone reportedly launched by Russia struck a high-rise building in Kyiv, causing a fire, the city's mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on his Telegram channel.

On Monday, explosions shook the city in a rare daylight attack. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said Russian forces fired 11 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv at about 11:30 a.m. local time, with air defense systems shooting all of them down.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and first lady Olena Zelenska posted on Monday a video of what they said were schoolchildren running toward bomb shelters in Kyiv as air sirens sounded.

In Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district, where the blaze broke out early on Tuesday, "one person died. One elderly woman is hospitalized by doctors. Two victims were treated on the spot," Mayor Klitschko said.

The Air Force Command of Ukraine's Armed Forces said a total of 31 kamikaze drones were launched by Russia into Kyiv. Air defense forces shot down 29 drones over the city, the military said.

"In the last 24 hours, the enemy has already carried out 3 attacks. Moreover, the enemy is constantly changing weapons for attack, after the combined missile-drone, and then ballistic, the aggressor used exclusively UAVs," the city's military administration said in a post on Telegram.

The administration described the overnight air strike as "extreme," stating that it was the 17th attack launched since the beginning of May.

"The attack was massed, from different directions, in several waves. The air alert lasted almost 3 hours!"

It said search operations are underway for people potentially trapped under debris in the high-rise building where a fire broke out.

Elsewhere, cars were damaged by debris in the Pechersk district, a house caught fire in the Darnytskyi district as a result of falling debris, and parked cars were damaged. Burning debris also fell in the Dnipro, Podilsky, and Sviatoshyn districts, authorities said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted on Monday that strikes on civilian areas in the country amount to "war crimes."

"Russia's drone and missile attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities cannot be seen as usual, no matter how frequent they grow," he wrote.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

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