In the night from Wednesday to Thursday, Russia launched 675 drones and 56 missiles at Ukraine, most of which have been shot down, according to the Ukrainian army. The attack is one of the deadliest to hit Kiev since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Rescue teams are still searching through the rubble of a building in search of survivors. Kiev is observing a day of mourning this Friday following massive Russian bombings that hit the Ukrainian capital from Wednesday night to Thursday, resulting in 24 deaths, including three children, and forty-seven injuries.
Meanwhile, Russian strikes on the town of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow, resulted in three deaths and 12 injuries, according to local authorities. The Russian army claimed to have shot down 355 Ukrainian drones from Thursday to Friday night, especially over border regions of Ukraine and Moscow.
The missile and drone attack on Ukraine from Wednesday night to Thursday, occurring 48 hours after a three-day ceasefire for the celebrations of the end of World War II, is one of the bloodiest to have targeted the capital recently, over four years after the start of the Russian invasion.
According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia targeted Ukraine with 675 drones and 56 Russian missiles from Wednesday to Thursday night, of which 652 drones and 41 missiles were shot down by defense mechanisms.
French President Emmanuel Macron denounced this new attack, seeing it as evidence of Moscow’s “weakness” and inability to end its war of aggression.
In the south of the country, a UN vehicle was also struck on Thursday by Russian drones, with no reported injuries, stated Volodymyr Zelensky. In Kiev, damage was reported on more than “twenty sites” throughout the city, particularly affecting civilian infrastructure.
A senior official at the Ukrainian presidency described this massive new attack as “a demonstration for discussions (of Donald) Trump in China” with his counterpart Xi Jinping.
Negotiations between Kiev and Moscow, mediated by the United States, have been on hold since the start of the war in the Middle East at the end of February. The only concrete progress from previous negotiations has been exchanges of prisoners.
