Russian drone and missile strikes on Kyiv killed two people overnight and wounded at least 16 others, Ukrainian authorities said on Tuesday, while a Russian-installed official in annexed Crimea said a Ukrainian attack there killed two more. The strikes came just days after both sides had paused attacks on each other’s capitals as US envoys pushed for progress towards a peace settlement, reports AP.
With front-line fighting largely stalled since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, both countries have escalated their aerial campaigns in recent months in an effort to wear each other down. The latest exchange followed visits to Moscow and Kyiv by US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, which produced no significant breakthrough in efforts to end the war.
Kyiv and the southern Odesa region bore the brunt of Russia’s overnight assault, Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said, with explosions echoing across the capital for nearly five hours. More than 50 sites were damaged in Kyiv, including residential buildings, dormitories, schools, shops, petrol stations and a flour production plant, he added. No immediate casualty figures were available for Odesa.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported damage and fires in at least five districts of Kyiv, while the city’s military administration said civilian infrastructure had been hit in at least 16 locations. A 26-storey non-residential building was struck in the Holosiivskyi district, where one person was rescued, and two others were evacuated from a 16-storey residential block. Authorities said people had also been trapped in a five-storey residential building in the Solomianskyi district.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the assault as a horrific attack and accused President Vladimir Putin of undermining Washington’s diplomatic efforts, writing on X that Putin’s “ballistic missiles speak louder than his words on diplomacy.” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram that the strike appeared deliberately designed to inflict maximum damage, combining ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles and Shahed drones.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had carried out a large-scale strike using land, air and sea-based precision weapons alongside long-range drones, targeting what it described as Ukrainian military industry sites.
It said the targets included storage facilities for drones and cruise missiles, along with transport and logistics hubs handling military cargo in Kyiv and the surrounding region. The ministry added that infrastructure at the port of Chornomorsk in Odesa, used for unloading military cargo, had also been hit, along with a tanker carrying fuel for Ukraine’s armed forces.
Crimea’s Russian-installed governor, Sergei Aksyonov, said a separate Ukrainian strike on the peninsula killed two people and wounded one.
Kyiv resident Iryna Barisenkova, 61, said she had been travelling on public transport when she heard explosions and learned of a large fire near the Darnytskyi Vehicle Repair Plant on the capital’s left bank, describing the scene as “just brutal.” She said she had slept soundly over the previous two nights while the American envoys were in Kyiv, and hoped their presence might continue to keep the shelling at bay.
