Europe furious as deadly Russian attack damages prominent Kyiv offices
At least 18 people, including four children, were killed in the attack that involved hypersonic missiles and drones.
washingtonpost.com
KYIV — Russian forces pummeled Kyiv overnight into Thursday, sending wave after wave of airborne attacks at targets in the capital and across the country, killing at least 18 — including four children — and damaging buildings linked to European countries.
The mission of the European Union and the office of the British Council, the cultural arm of the British Embassy, were damaged by a shock wave from a missile attack on a nearby building, prompting the summoning of Russian envoys by Britain and the European Commission. A top E.U. official also called President Donald Trump after the strike to insist Russia come to the negotiating table.
It was the most ferocious attack on the Ukrainian capital since President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s summit in Alaska failed to yield a ceasefire. And the number of casualties suggested unusual weakness in Ukraine’s air defenses.
Loud explosions shook the center of Kyiv as attack drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles battered the capital for hours. City officials said the strikes damaged more than 20 locations in Kyiv, causing fires in residential buildings, damaging a shopping mall and kindergarten, and leveling a section of a five-story apartment block.
Emergency services said it had rescued three people from under the rubble at one of the locations. “There is a high likelihood that people are still trapped under the ruins,” it said in a statement.
At least 17 died in just one strike on a building in the Darnytskyi district, according to the Interior Ministry. Search operations are ongoing, it added.
A missile destroyed a building near the European Union mission to Ukraine, sending a blast wave through the delegation and residential tower where E.U. employees live, said its ambassador, Katarina Mathernová.
She said many were “shaken and horrified,” although there were no injuries. “The war touched them directly last night. The war touched the European Union,” she posted on Facebook. “And no one will convince me that this was not Putin’s intention.”
The nearby office of the British Council was also severely damaged, according to the organization, and would be closed until further notice.
The attacked provoked condemnations from European leaders, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying that Putin, by killing children, was “sabotaging hopes for peace” and French President Emmanuel Macron describing it as “terror and barbarism.”
Both the European Commission and Britain have summoned their respective Russian envoys in response to the attack.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she called Trump after the attack and that “Putin must come to the negotiating table” and vowed “to turn Ukraine into a steel porcupine.”
Ukraine’s air force said Thursday that Moscow launched 598 drones and 31 missiles against targets in Ukraine, of which 563 drones and 26 missiles were shot down. The air force did not say how many of those were directed against Kyiv, however.
“Unfortunately, the handwriting of the Russians from attack to attack is typical,” Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s municipal military administration, wrote on Telegram. “Combined strikes from different directions. And systematically — targeting ordinary residential buildings.”
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