At least eight people have been killed and more than a dozen injured after Russian drones and missiles struck residential buildings in Kiev as part of a wider wave of Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital overnight.
Several explosions were heard in some parts of the city till Thursday night.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on Telegram that a fire broke out on the roof of a hotel on central Shevchenko Boulevard.
Klitschko later said in a post that Kiev also came under ballistic missile attack.
President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier said that intelligence reports indicated that a major attack was likely and he was cutting short his stay in Dublin.
Ukrainian drone disrupts Russian military lines
Russia’s drone and missile attacks come after Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow earlier this week.
And that Ukrainian drone attack came less than two weeks after the country struck a major oil refinery in the Moscow region in the largest drone attack on the Russian capital since the start of a full-scale war in 2022.
Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy facilities and other critical infrastructure during the war.
But Ukraine is now producing better long-range drones and has attacked targets deep inside Russia.
A new analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said on Wednesday that, by some estimates, more than 90% of Russian casualties were caused by drone strikes as a result of human-to-human activities.
Russia had to pay a heavy price in Ukraine
CSIS study states Russian forces suffered approximately 1.4 million battlefield casualties (killed, wounded or missing) between February 2022 and June 2026 and between 400,000 and 450,000 deaths during the same period.
Ukrainian forces suffered between 525,000 and 625,000 casualties (killed, wounded and missing) and between 125,000 and 150,000 deaths between February 2022 and June 2026.
This means that more than two million Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and wounded since the war began, a depressing milestone.
Edited by: Srinivas Majumdaru
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