KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least six people including a 6-year-old boy and wounding 52 others, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.
The casualties numbers were likely to rise, Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said. A large part of a nine-story residential building collapsed after it was struck, he said.
Rescue teams were at the scene to search for people trapped under the rubble.
Russia fired 309 Shahed and decoy drones, and eight Iskander-K cruise missiles overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted and jammed 288 strike drones and three missiles. Five missiles and 21 drones struck targets.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said that its forces took full control of the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Ukrainian officials, who typically don’t confirm retreats, didn’t immediately comment.
Russian and Ukrainian troops have battled for control of Chasiv Yar for nearly 18 months. It includes a hilltop from which troops can attack other key points in the region that form the backbone of Ukraine’s eastern defenses.
A report on Thursday from Ukraine’s Army General Staff said there were seven clashes in Chasiv Yar in the past 24 hours. An attached map showed most of the town as being under Russian control.
DeepState, an open-source Ukrainian map widely used by the military and analysts, showed early Thursday that neighborhoods to the south and west of Chasiv Yar remained as so-called gray zones, or uncontrolled by either side.
The attack targeted the Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Sumy, Mykolaiv regions, with Ukraine’s capital being the primary target, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
“Today, the world once again saw Russia’s answer to our desire for peace with America and Europe,” Zelenskyy said. “New demonstrative killings. That is why peace without strength is impossible.”
He called on Ukraine’s allies to follow through on defense commitments and pressure Moscow toward real negotiations.
Plumes of smoke emanating from a partially damaged building and debris strewn on the ground. The force of the blast wave was powerful enough to leave clothes hanging limply from trees.
At least 27 locations across Kyiv were hit by the attack, Tkachenko said, with the heaviest damage seen in the Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline — Aug. 8 — for to make progress, or Washington will impose punitive sanctions and tariffs.
Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land.
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