Russia flattened a section of an apartment block in Kyiv on Tuesday in its deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital this year, part of a barrage of hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles that killed at least 16 people and wounded 124 others.
Ukrainian officials declared a day of mourning on Wednesday for the victims of what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as one of the most horrific attacks on Kyiv since the start of the war.
Zelenskyy said Russian forces had sent 440 drones and fired 32 missiles at Ukraine.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had used air-, land- and sea-based missiles and drones to strike “objects of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine” in the Kyiv region and southern Zaporizhzhia province.
About 27 locations in Kyiv were hit during several waves of attacks throughout the night, and residential buildings, educational institutions and critical infrastructure facilities were damaged, officials said.
A ballistic missile struck a nine-storey residential building in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district, wiping out a whole section of it, which was flattened into a pile of debris.
Emergency workers were combing through the rubble and dousing the flames with hoses. They used a crane to lower a wounded elderly woman in a stretcher out of the window of a flat in an adjacent section of the building.
“I have never seen anything like this before. It is simply horrific. When they started pulling people out, and everyone was cut up, elderly people and children … I do not know how long they can continue to torment us, ordinary people,” said Viktoriia Vovchenko, 57, who lives nearby.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 14 people were killed in Kyiv and one more in Odesa, in southern Ukraine. Nearly 100 were injured between Kyiv, Odesa and Chernihiv, in the north, officials said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one of the deceased was a 62-year-old U.S. citizen, who died from shrapnel wounds.
Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine on Tuesday, hitting dozens of civilian targets in Kyiv, including a large apartment block, killing at least 15 people and wounding many more, Ukrainian officials said.
Canada pledges more support at G7
Zelenskyy was in Alberta on Tuesday for the G7 summit, where the Canadian government announced $2 billion in military aid for Ukraine — funding that will help buy more drones, ammunition and armoured vehicles, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office said. Canada is also extending a $2.3-billion loan to help Ukraine rebuild infrastructure, the PMO said.
Meanwhile, fellow G7 member Britain, through Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office, announced new sanctions on people and groups it said were linked to Russian finance, energy and military operations.
President Donald Trump has reoriented U.S. policy away from supporting Kyiv and has so far resisted calls from European allies to impose tighter sanctions on Moscow for rejecting calls for a ceasefire.
At the G7 summit, taking place in Kananaskis, Alta., Trump called for the group to readmit Russia, which was expelled in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. Trump then departed the summit earlier than anticipated, and before having the chance to meet with Zelenskyy.
Ukraine has also launched drones deep into Russia, although its attacks have not caused similar damage to civilian targets. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed 147 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, including the Moscow region, overnight.
Russia’s full-scale invasion is now in its fourth year, and the hostilities have heated up in recent weeks as Kyiv and Moscow failed to reach any agreement during two rounds of peace talks in Istanbul.
Russian troops are pressing on with a grinding advance in eastern Ukraine and have opened a new front in the Sumy region in the northeast, despite calls for a ceasefire from Trump, who promised to end the war quickly.
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The Kremlin on Tuesday, when asked if Russia planned to assess Ukrainian proposals for a ceasefire and hold new talks, said there was no understanding of when the next direct negotiations with Kyiv would occur.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia had fulfilled all its obligations agreed to in previous talks held in Istanbul on June 2. Russia would assess in the coming days the possible timeframe for continuing negotiations, he said.
The talks in Turkey led to no known measures to help halt fighting, though the two sides subsequently made a series of exchanges involving prisoners of war, as well as the bodies of war dead.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine war has changed drastically over time — particularly in terms of how he frames Russian President Vladimir Putin. Andrew Chang breaks down Trump’s criticism of Putin following Russia’s latest attack by explaining what it may signal about how the U.S. proceeds.
Images provided by Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters.
