KYIV, Ukraine (BN24) — A massive overnight Russian air assault killed at least six people, including a 6-year-old boy, and wounded 52 others in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, officials said Thursday, in one of the deadliest attacks on the city in recent weeks.
The barrage of missiles and drones left a swath of destruction across Kyiv, with parts of a nine-story apartment building in the Solomianskyi district collapsing under the impact. Emergency crews worked through the morning, combing the rubble for survivors.
Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko warned that the death toll was likely to rise as search efforts continued. He said 27 locations in the capital had been hit, including the heavily damaged Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi neighborhoods.
Among the dead was a 6-year-old boy, authorities confirmed. Fifty-two others were injured in the strikes, which left shattered buildings, burnt-out cars, and clothing hanging from trees. “It is just stress and shock that there is nothing left,” said Yana Zhabborova, 35, a resident of the damaged building and mother of a 5-month-old infant and a 5-year-old child.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 309 Shahed and decoy drones and eight Iskander-K cruise missiles during the attack. Ukrainian defenses intercepted and downed 288 drones and three missiles, but five missiles and 21 drones hit their targets.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the assault and said it demonstrated Moscow’s disregard for peace. “Today, the world once again saw Russia’s answer to our desire for peace with America and Europe,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “New demonstrative killings. That is why peace without strength is impossible.”
He called on Ukraine’s allies to follow through on defense promises and increase pressure on the Kremlin to bring Moscow to serious negotiations.
The strike came as Russia claimed new ground in eastern Ukraine. Moscow’s Ministry of Defense announced its troops had fully seized the strategically vital city of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, a hilltop town seen as key to breaching Ukraine’s eastern defenses.
Ukrainian officials did not confirm the loss of the city, although the military reported seven clashes there in the past 24 hours. A Ukrainian army map showed most of the town under Russian control. The DeepState monitoring project, widely used by Ukrainian analysts and soldiers, marked areas to the south and west of Chasiv Yar as contested or “gray zones.”
Meanwhile, Russian officials reported Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russian territory overnight. In the Penza region, a drone strike sparked a fire at an industrial site, though no casualties were reported. In the Volgograd region, rail traffic was temporarily disrupted after drone wreckage damaged local infrastructure, according to Russian Railways.
Russia said it had downed 32 Ukrainian drones across its territory.
The attack on Kyiv was part of a broader assault that also targeted the Dnipro, Poltava, Sumy, and Mykolaiv regions, though the capital appeared to bear the brunt of the overnight bombardment.
The international spotlight remains focused on the growing toll of the war as diplomatic efforts falter. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday gave Russian President Vladimir Putin an Aug. 8 deadline to make meaningful progress toward peace or face new sanctions and tariffs.
Western leaders have accused Putin of stalling negotiations in hopes of seizing more territory before any ceasefire or settlement can take hold.
