Seven killed, dozens injured as Russian strikes hit Kyiv

At least seven people were killed and more than two dozen injured after Russian drones and missiles struck Kyiv and its surrounding region overnight, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

The attacks sparked fires in residential areas, destroyed parts of high-rise buildings, and damaged metro infrastructure, prompting fresh outrage amid Moscow’s intensifying aerial campaign.

Six of the victims were killed in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district, where an entire section of a multi-storey building was reduced to rubble. Among the injured were four children, authorities said.

Read: Russia launches massive drone attack on Ukraine, hits Kyiv and Odesa maternity ward

Another casualty was reported in the city of Bila Tserkva, south of Kyiv, where a hospital was struck by a drone. At least eight others were injured in the broader Kyiv region.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko warned that more people may be trapped under the debris as search operations continued across six of the city’s 10 districts.

Photos from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service showed rescuers pulling residents from flaming debris as buildings continued to burn in the early hours.

In one of the hardest-hit areas, the entrance to a metro station in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district commonly used as a bomb shelter was damaged along with a nearby bus stop.

The country’s air force said it shot down 339 of the 352 drones and 15 of 16 missiles launched by Russia in the overnight barrage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is visiting the United Kingdom, said he would discuss bolstering Ukraine’s air defence and pressing Russia diplomatically to halt the strikes.

The attack follows one of the deadliest barrages on the capital last week, which killed 28 people and wounded more than 150.

Moscow has not commented on the most recent attack. Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians, though thousands of Ukrainian non-combatants have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Read more: Ukraine receives another 1,200 bodies from Russia

This latest escalation came days after previous Russian air raids struck sports facilities and damaged dormitories at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The repeated targeting of civilian sites has raised alarm among aid agencies and Kyiv’s allies.

Earlier this year, a separate Russian strike damaged a Kyiv metro entrance used as a bomb shelter the same pattern repeated in the latest assault.