Russian drone and missile barrage kills four and damages Ukraine government building

Russia carried out a large overnight drone and missile attack on Ukraine, killing four people nationwide and damaging a major government building in central Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials and reports from BBC News and The Associated Press.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia used 810 drones and decoys in the assault, while AP reported that 13 missiles were also launched. The air force said 747 drones and four missiles were neutralized, and that impacts from nine missiles and 54 drones were recorded at 33 locations across the country. A Ukrainian air force spokesperson told AP the drone component made it the largest Russian drone attack since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

The Cabinet of Ministers building in Kyiv, which houses Ukraine’s main government offices, was damaged during the attack. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said from inside the building that its roof and upper floors had been hit and that a fire covering 800 square meters had been extinguished. BBC News reported that this was the first time a Kyiv government building in the heavily protected city center had been hit during the war.

The cause of the damage to the government headquarters was not fully settled in the initial accounts. AP said it was not immediately clear whether smoke seen rising from the roof followed a direct strike or falling debris. BBC News cited Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko as saying a fire in a government building in the Pechersk district may have resulted from a drone being shot down.

The dead included a mother and her 3-month-old child in Kyiv, city officials said. Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s city administration, said their bodies were recovered from rubble. AP reported that two people were killed and 20 wounded in the capital, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said four people were killed and 44 wounded across Ukraine.

Residential areas in Kyiv were also struck. Officials reported direct drone hits on a nine-story building in the Sviatoshynskyi district and a four-story building in the Darnytskyi district. BBC News said Kyiv officials described several multi-storey residential buildings in Sviatoshynskyi and Darnytskyi as partly destroyed after direct hits.

Beyond Kyiv, Zelenskyy said damage was reported in Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih and Odesa, and in the Sumy and Chernihiv regions. BBC News cited regional officials saying 17 people were injured in Zaporizhzhia, where homes and a nursery were among the buildings hit. The same report said another person was killed in Safonivka in Sumy region and another in Chernihiv region, according to Zelenskyy.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it struck Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, transport infrastructure, drone facilities, military air bases, and logistics sites, and claimed all designated targets were hit. It said no strikes were carried out on other objects within Kyiv’s borders, AP reported.

Zelenskyy called for stronger sanctions and air defenses, saying the killings showed an attempt to prolong the war. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the attack, according to AP and BBC News.