KYIV — As Ukraine’s defenses struggle to keep up with Russia’s technological advances, its capital is fast becoming a frontline city.
Black smoke choked Kyiv on Monday afternoon as waves of jet-powered Russian drones crashed into the city center, striking the National Academy of Sciences and a large, state-of-the-art medical center.
Academy employees, several of them elderly, hung from the building’s top floor windows, desperate to escape the flames and smoke. At least two people were killed and 24 injured in the string of attacks, Kyiv authorities said Monday. Three of those injured were children.
The Kremlin said Monday that Ukraine was “paying the price” for continuing to attack Russia, and that its forces were “striking those targets that they deem appropriate.” Ukraine in recent months has increased long-range strikes on Russian cities and energy facilities, including a strike in Western Siberia 1,700 miles from the frontlines.
Moscow, meanwhile, has intensified its assault on Kyiv, deploying ever-faster, more advanced weaponry that is easily able to evade Ukrainian air defenses. Kyiv currently relies on prototypes of the necessary interceptors, and has yet to deploy these en masse. The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has indicated this could take several months.
But time is not on Kyiv’s side. Monday’s attack on the academy at around 1:30 p.m. was just the beginning of an exhausting day for the city’s residents and its first responders.
Russian drones in recent weeks have targeted food and medicine warehouses, gas stations and data centers in an apparent attempt to disrupt supply chains and internet connectivity ahead of the winter.
Zelensky, dealing with an unexpected $27 billion defense budget shortfall, has pleaded with Kyiv’s allies for more interceptors. The Trump administration this month announced new sanctions aimed at throttling Moscow’s energy and defense sectors and its shadow fleet of sanctions-evading vessels. But it hasn’t been enough, Zelensky said Monday.
“Every Russian terrorist act results in victims that could have been prevented if the pressure on Russia had been total,” he wrote on social media.
Scientists and academics, many of them Soviet-born, gathered in the street outside the ruins of the ornate yellow neo-Classical building just opposite Kyiv’s opera house in the historic city center, cigarettes in trembling hands.
Academy President Anatoliy Zavhorodnii, 75, was about to sit down at his computer, he told The Washington Post, when the drone slammed into the building. The academy employs around 200 people, he said, but most had been out for lunch at the time of the attack.
“This is an entirely civilian facility,” said Zavhorodnii, describing the academy’s management of research institutes, arboretums and the National Library.
Volodymyr Horbulin, the 87-year-old scientist and founding secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, was injured in the attack, according to local media. His assistant was killed, BBC Ukraine reported.
Driver Vitalii Riabokon, 52, put his survival down to luck.
“I was actually carrying toilet paper down to the basement. That’s what saved me,” he said. “I came out of the basement and everything was already on fire. I couldn’t make it back to my office.”
Facing an increasingly dire situation with few options, Zelensky called again for more support and faster decisions.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to such brutal attacks,” he said. “We need to respond with global determination and strength. We are counting on the strength of Europe, America, and other of our partners who can help protect lives.”
An hour later and half a mile to the west, a drone smashed through the top floors of the Dobrobut medical center.
Outside, stunned onlookers snapped photos of the blaze. Another air raid alarm sounded and emergency workers shouted at hovering medical staff and civilians to take cover. Bystanders scattered to nearby underpasses and archways.
A third explosion rocked the city, but this time, it was an interceptor striking an incoming drone.
Meanwhile, four people, including three children, were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia’s Voronezh region on Monday. Two of the children are hospitalized in serious condition, regional Governor Alexander Gusev said.
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