At least three people have been killed and dozens wounded in an overnight Russian air attack on Kyiv, according to the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, as Russia’s war on Ukraine approaches its four-year mark.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Sunday that “several” Russian drones were operating over the city, and warned people to “remain in shelters”.
“According to preliminary information, three people died and 27 were wounded (including 6 children),” Klitscho wrote later on Telegram, adding that all had received medical attention and some had been hospitalised.
He said drone fragments fell onto a nine-storey residential building in the northeastern Desnyansky district, sparking fires in apartments on several floors.
“The fire has already been extinguished. Work is ongoing to dismantle the structures,” wrote Klitschko.
Fragments damaged another nine-floor block in the same district, where five people were rescued, he said, adding that “dismantling of structures is ongoing.”
More drone fragments fell on a 16-storey residential block in the northern Obolonsky district, damaging an apartment, Klitschko said.
“There are no fires or structural collapses,” he added.
The full scale of the damage and size of the attack were not immediately known. Kyiv and its surrounding region were under air raid alerts for about 1.5 hours before the air force called them off at about 00:30 GMT.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in their attacks on each other’s territory. But thousands have been killed in the war that Russia started with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the vast majority of them Ukrainian, among them many civilians.
The attacks came a day after other Russian drone and missile strikes killed four, two of them in Kyiv, and wounded more than a dozen in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian authorities.
On Saturday, United States President Donald Trump played down prospects of a summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, saying he was “not going to be wasting [his] time”.
The remarks came as Kremlin negotiator Kirill Dmitriev met with Trump administration officials, including special envoy Steve Witkoff, a Russian source familiar with the talks told the AFP news agency. The discussions were expected to continue on Sunday.
Earlier this week, the US and the European Union announced new sweeping sanctions on Russian energy aimed at crippling Moscow’s war economy.
Putin said he would not bend to pressure from the West. “No self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever decides anything under pressure,” he said, calling the US sanctions an “unfriendly act”.
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