Russia hammers Ukraine in biggest drone attack since war began

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - KYIV —A huge wave of Russian strikes overnight targeted Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killing at least 17 people and injuring dozens of others, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Russia unleashed a third straight day of massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine on Thursday, demolishing an apartment building in Kyiv where at least 16 people, , including a12-year-old girl,were killed and dozens injured, authorities said. More strikes elsewhere in the country wounded more than two dozen civilians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired more than 1,560 drones on Ukraine since the start of Wednesday – making it the largest aerial attack on Ukraine in a two-day period since the war began. A further 56 missiles were launched overnight, Zelensky said Thursday.

As dawn broke on a clear day in Kyiv, a scene of devastation came into focus in the capital’s leafy Darnytsia neighborhood, located between a suburban forest and the Dnieper River.

Wisps of smoke rose from the collapsed nine-story apartment block, where emergency workers dug under concrete slabs and took people away on stretchers. The building’s entrance was smashed in the strike, preventing residents from escaping.

All 18 apartments in the building were destroyed, officials said.

At least 16 people, including a 12-year-old girl, were killed in the attack, according to emergency services. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a 15-year-old girl was also among the dead.

There may still be residents trapped under the debris of the collapsed building, as the State Emergency Service said more than a dozen people have been reported missing.

Another man in Kyiv died in hospital from injuries sustained in an attack on a gas station, police said.

Air raid alarms sounded for roughly 11 hours throughout Wednesday and overnight, according to CNN’s team on the ground.

“I heard a loud explosion. I ran out to the kitchen and saw people running around the yard, calling for help. Then I rushed out of the building and saw that the front entrance was gone,” building resident Olena Suntovska, 38, told CNN. “I was scared – it’s so stressful for me because I was worried about the kids,” the mother of three added.

Another resident, 76-year-old Polina, said she woke up to find that the window to her balcony had been blown out.

Kyiv Mayor Klitschko described it as “the enemy’s largest-scale attack on the capital” and declared a day of mourning on Friday.

Zelensky said the two-day aerial barrage came after Russia “stockpiled drones and missiles over a period of time and deliberately timed the strike to ensure its scale was significant and the challenges for our air defense were as great as possible.” He added that Ukraine is preparing a response.

Meanwhile, attacks on the city of Kharkiv on Thursday morning injured at least 28 people, according to Zelensky. Two people were also injured in the Odesa region.

The large-scale wave of Russian attacks also targeted other regions, including Poltava and Zaporizhzhia, and damaged some energy and railway infrastructure.

A power substation and a high-voltage power line were damaged in Kyiv following a missile and drone strike, energy company DTEK said in a statement. A train locomotive was hit in the Kharkiv region, according to Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian railways), but the locomotive crew was able to evacuate in time.

British Defense Secretary John Healey called Thursday’s attack “shocking” and said he had accelerated U.K. deliveries of air defenses.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the military aimed at Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, including air bases and fuel and transport facilities, claiming it hit all its targets.