Four killed in Russian attack on Ukraine

KYIV (AFP) — A Russian attack overnight, mostly targeting the capital Kyiv, killed four people and damaged buildings across the city, Ukrainian authorities said Friday. 

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has in recent months intensified its attacks on infrastructure, particularly targeting Ukrainian energy facilities and rail systems, as well as residential areas.

“This was a deliberately calculated attack aimed at causing maximum harm to people and civilian infrastructure,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The attack killed four, Zelensky said, and wounded dozens including a pregnant woman.

Zelensky added that Russia had launched around 430 drones and 18 missiles in the attack.

Agence France-Presse journalists in the capital saw tracer bullets used against drones and several anti-missile systems deployed.

“There are a lot of damaged high-rise buildings throughout Kyiv, almost in every district,” Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration, wrote on social media.

Ukrainian emergency services rescued dozens from fires and destruction across the city, as the police said 30 residential buildings in nine districts were damaged.

Some parts of the Desnyansky and Podil district were temporarily left without heat, mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.

But local emergency outages caused by the attack were resolved by the morning, he said.

Transport was partially blocked, city administration authorities said, with buses and trams delayed.

Russian forces have been grinding across eastern Ukraine for months, trying to take control of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Experts say Russia’s latest strikes on energy infrastructure are putting Ukraine at risk of heating outages ahead of the winter months.

Ukraine has in turn stepped up attacks on Russian infrastructure, and sought to strike further beyond the front.

Russian forces downed more than 200 Ukrainian drones overnight into Friday, Moscow’s defense ministry said, including 66 over Krasnodar Krai and 45 over Saratov in the south.

A fire broke out at the Sheskharis oil refinery, one of the largest in Russia, in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, before being brought under control, Krasnodar Krai authorities said.

A civilian vessel there was also damaged, with three of the crew wounded and hospitalized, they added.