Russian Kyiv strike claims five, says Ukraine

Ukraine said Monday that “another massive attack” on the capital Kyiv killed at least five people, a day after the country’s top military commander vowed to intensify strikes on Russia.

Diplomatic efforts to end the three-year war have stalled, with the last direct meeting between the two sides almost three weeks ago and no follow-up talks scheduled.

AFP journalists in Kyiv heard the buzzing of a drone flying over the city center and explosions, as well as gunfire.

“Another massive attack on the capital. Possibly, several waves of enemy drones,” said a statement from Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration.

Four people were killed in Shevchenkivsky district, where part of a residential high-rise building was destroyed, and another person was killed to the south in Bila Tserkva, said Interior Minister Igor Klymenko.

AFP journalists saw around 10 people sheltering in the basement of a residential building in the center of the capital waiting for the attack to end, most of them scrolling their phones for news.

The latest strikes came after Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky vowed to intensify strikes on Russia.

“We will not just sit in defense because this brings nothing and eventually leads to the fact that we still retreat, lose people and territories,” he told reporters, including AFP.

Syrsky said Ukraine would continue its strikes on Russian military targets, which he said had proved “effective.”

“Of course we will continue. We will increase the scale and depth,” he said.

Ukraine has launched retaliatory strikes on Russia throughout the war, targeting energy and military infrastructure sometimes hundreds of kilometers from the front line.

Kyiv says the strikes are a fair response to deadly Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and civilians.

At least four people were killed in an overnight Russian strike on an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, while a strike on a Ukrainian army training ground later in the day killed three others, officials said.

In wide-ranging remarks, Syrsky conceded that Russia had some advantages in drone warfare, particularly in making fiber-optic drones that are tethered and difficult to jam.

“Here, unfortunately, they have an advantage in both the number and range of their use,” he said.