Russia bombards Kyiv in one of war’s biggest strikes, at least 21 people killed

Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in the early hours on Thursday, killing at least 21 people, wounding scores more and damaging around 130 buildings in one of the biggest attacks of the war.

Multiple explosions shook central Kyiv and reverberated across the capital throughout the night as thousands of residents rushed to bomb shelters and underground metro stations. Huge columns of smoke filled the skyline.

The attack was the deadliest in Kyiv since at least May, and the wide spread of destruction across the breadth of the capital had little precedent even in a war now in its fifth year.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who cut short his visit to Ireland and rushed home, visited a site on the city’s left bank where a nine-story residential building was half destroyed. He blamed the destruction in part on a failure of allies to deliver promised air defenses.

“If our partners had delivered on their promises in a timely manner, I think we could have saved more homes and lives today,” said Zelenskiy, who looked tired and visibly frustrated. “All we ask of our partners is simply to do what we’ve agreed on. We’re not even asking for more.”

Russia launched 74 missiles and 496 drones overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. Yuri Ihnat, the Air Force spokesperson, said the number of ballistic missiles was unusually high and the interception rate for them was low. Ukraine has struggled with shortages of Patriot missiles in recent months.

The Russian Defence Ministry, in a Telegram post, said its “massive attack” using long-range, high-precision air-, land- and sea-launched weapons and drones hit military and energy facilities, as well as airports in Kyiv and other locations.

Moscow said the attacks were retaliation for Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia. Kyiv, which has stepped up strikes in recent weeks on Russia’s domestic fuel supply, said it had hit an oil refinery overnight in the Russian region of Nizhny Novgorod, where the governor reported one person killed in a strike on an industrial facility.

The Kremlin said Russian military commanders had briefed President Vladimir Putin about the Russian attacks, adding that Moscow would continue to increase pressure on Ukraine to achieve its war aims.

DAY OF MOURNING ANNOUNCED IN KYIV

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced a day of mourning in Kyiv for Friday. He said that damage was recorded across the entire city of about 3 million people, with some buildings heavily damaged.

Katarina Mathernova, the EU ambassador to Ukraine, said that “Russia unleashed hell on Kyiv” overnight, and had struck accommodation used by diplomatic personnel. Diplomats were unharmed, but their belongings were damaged in the fire that engulfed the building, she said.

More than 600 rescuers were sifting through the rubble at several sites across the city and the work would continue through the night, the emergency services officials said.

City officials said that more than 90 people, including children, paramedics and drivers at an ambulance station, were wounded and that some people were still trapped inside damaged residential buildings.

“Our house is on fire. Oleg was pulling our neighbor out of the burning house, while I was phoning all the emergency services during the explosions,” Iryna Plekhova, a Kyiv resident, said on Facebook, posting a picture of a half-destroyed apartment building with no windows.

“We do not have an apartment anymore.”

The National Institute of Biochemistry was among many buildings damaged: its state-of-the-art biochemistry laboratory and other offices were gutted during the attack.

“This is a catastrophe for medical and biological science of Ukraine,” biologist Yurii Danylovych told Reuters.

Ukraine’s neighbor Poland, a NATO and EU member, briefly scrambled fighter jets as a preventive measure. Finland also briefly issued a temporary aviation restriction zone in the eastern Gulf of Finland, its defense forces said.

MORE PRESSURE ON RUSSIA NEEDED

After years in which Ukraine bore the brunt of relentless long-range attacks from Russia, Kyiv has intensified its own strikes deeper into Russian territory in recent months, mainly hitting energy targets. That has triggered a fuel crisis in Russia, forcing the world’s third-biggest oil producer to import gasoline from as far away as India.

Russia has responded with a stepped-up air campaign against Ukrainian cities, last month hitting a thousand-year-old Kyiv cathedral foundational to the Orthodox faith in both countries.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said only sustained military support for Ukraine and increased pressure on Moscow could help stop Russian attacks.

“Today, I will propose to sanction more entities supporting Russia’s military-industrial complex in response to the strikes,” she said in a post on X. “The more Moscow attacks civilians, the more sanctions must be imposed.”

Zelenskiy has proposed peace talks with Putin, which the Kremlin leader has rejected. Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators held talks in the past two days, and that he hoped to have a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Turkey next week.

Russia has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians in strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow denies intentionally attacking civilians but says attacks on what it describes as civil infrastructure are legitimate because they hurt Ukraine’s ability to wage war.

Kyiv has also launched attacks on Russia and Russian-occupied Ukraine on a far smaller scale.

周四凌晨，俄罗斯向乌克兰首都基辅发射了数百架无人机和数十枚导弹，造成至少 21 人死亡，数十人受伤，约 130 座建筑物受损，这是战争中规模最大的袭击之一。

基辅市中心发生多次爆炸，爆炸声彻夜回荡在首都上空，成千上万的居民涌向防空洞和地铁站。巨大的烟柱弥漫在天空。

这次袭击是基辅自至少五月以来最致命的袭击，首都遭受的大范围破坏即使在这场已经持续五年的战争中也鲜有先例。

缩短爱尔兰之行并匆匆赶回国的泽连斯基总统，视察了位于该市左岸的一处损毁地点，那里一栋九层高的居民楼被毁了一半。他将部分损失归咎于盟国未能兑现其承诺的防空能力。

“如果我们的合作伙伴能够及时履行承诺，我认为我们今天就能挽救更多房屋和生命，”泽连斯基说道，他看起来疲惫不堪，显然也很沮丧。“我们对合作伙伴的要求仅仅是履行我们达成的协议。我们甚至没有要求更多。”

乌克兰空军称，俄罗斯一夜之间发射了74枚导弹和496架无人机。空军发言人尤里·伊格纳特表示，弹道导弹数量异常之高，拦截率却很低。近几个月来，乌克兰一直面临着“爱国者”导弹短缺的问题。

俄罗斯国防部在 Telegram 上发帖称，其使用远程、高精度空射、陆射和海射武器及无人机发动的“大规模攻击”袭击了基辅和其他地区的军事和能源设施以及机场。

莫斯科方面称，此次袭击是对乌克兰无人机袭击俄罗斯的报复。基辅方面表示，乌克兰最近几周加大了对俄罗斯国内燃料供应的打击力度，并称其连夜袭击了俄罗斯下诺夫哥罗德州的一家炼油厂。下诺夫哥罗德州州长报告称，袭击造成一人在工业设施中丧生。

克里姆林宫表示，俄罗斯军方指挥官已向总统弗拉基米尔·普京汇报了俄罗斯的袭击行动，并补充说，莫斯科将继续加大对乌克兰的压力，以实现其战争目标。

基辅宣布全国哀悼日

基辅市长维塔利·克利奇科宣布周五全市哀悼日。他表示，这座拥有约300万人口的城市遭受了不同程度的损失，一些建筑物损毁严重。

欧盟驻乌克兰大使卡塔琳娜·马特诺娃表示，“俄罗斯一夜之间对基辅发动了袭击”，并袭击了外交人员的住所。她说，外交官们安然无恙，但他们的财物在吞噬整栋建筑的大火中受损。

紧急救援部门官员表示，超过 600 名救援人员正在全市多个地点的废墟中搜寻，救援工作将持续到深夜。

市政府官员表示，包括儿童、医护人员和救护站司机在内的 90 多人受伤，一些人仍被困在受损的居民楼内。

“我们家着火了。爆炸发生时，我正在给所有紧急服务部门打电话，而奥列格正在把我们的邻居从燃烧的房子里拉出来，”基辅居民伊琳娜·普列霍娃在脸书上写道，并发布了一张公寓楼被毁一半、窗户都没了的照片。

“我们已经没有公寓了。”

国家生物化学研究所是众多受损建筑之一：其最先进的生物化学实验室和其他办公室在袭击中被夷为平地。

“这对乌克兰的医学和生物学来说是一场灾难，”生物学家尤里·丹尼洛维奇告诉路透社。

乌克兰的邻国波兰是北约和欧盟成员国，作为预防措施，波兰曾短暂紧急升空战斗机。芬兰国防部表示，芬兰也曾短暂在芬兰湾东部设立临时航空禁区。

需要对俄罗斯施加更大压力

多年来，乌克兰一直饱受俄罗斯持续不断的远程攻击，而近几个月来，基辅加大了对俄罗斯境内更深处目标的打击力度，主要针对能源设施。这引发了俄罗斯的燃料危机，迫使这个世界第三大石油生产国不得不从远在印度的地区进口汽油。

俄罗斯随即加大了对乌克兰城市的空袭力度，上个月袭击了基辅一座拥有千年历史的大教堂，该教堂是两国东正教信仰的基石。

欧盟外交政策负责人卡娅·卡拉斯表示，只有持续向乌克兰提供军事支持并加大对莫斯科的压力，才能阻止俄罗斯的袭击。

“今天，我将提议对更多支持俄罗斯军工复合体的实体实施制裁，以回应这些袭击，”她在X网站上发帖说。“莫斯科对平民的袭击越多，就必须实施越多的制裁。”

泽连斯基提议与普京举行和平谈判，但遭到克里姆林宫领导人的拒绝。泽连斯基表示，乌克兰和美国谈判代表在过去两天举行了会谈，他希望下周在土耳其举行的北约峰会期间与美国总统唐纳德·特朗普会面。

自 2022 年 2 月俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰以来，俄罗斯已在对基辅和其他乌克兰城市的袭击中造成数千名乌克兰平民死亡。

莫斯科否认故意攻击平民，但表示对所谓民用基础设施的攻击是合法的，因为这会损害乌克兰的战争能力。

基辅也曾对俄罗斯和俄罗斯占领的乌克兰发动过规模小得多的袭击。