Russian drones struck the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences in the historic heart of kyiv on Monday in the latest deadly daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital.
kyiv is increasingly facing Russian drones and missiles as Europe’s worst conflict since World War II enters its fifth year.
The capital came under fire again after an air force alert warning of approaching drones.
Video footage shared online appears to show a high-speed drone hitting the National Academy of Sciences at an acute angle, exploding and sending acrid smoke into the blue sky above.
People were seen leaning out of windows as bright orange flames engulfed part of the building.
Former secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Volodymyr Gorbulin told state broadcaster Suspilne that he was working at the academy at the time and was slightly injured.
But he said his assistant, who was near the building, was killed.
The National Academy of Sciences is close to the German Embassy, a cathedral, the National Opera and government buildings.
Kyiv’s cultural sites, government buildings and schools have all already been targeted, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The academy called the attack “Russian terror” and “barbarism,” targeting “peaceful people who were simply at their workplace… Ukrainian science, education and culture.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky said another strike in the capital hit a medical facility.
Elsewhere, Russian strikes killed four people and injured at least 19 others in a business center in the central city of Dnipro, while authorities reported an unknown number of deaths in a strike on a residential area east of Kharkiv.
Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky said Russian forces damaged an ice cream factory in the Zhytomyr region, west of kyiv, as well as residential buildings in Sumy, to the north, Rivne, to the northwest, and south of Odessa.
Thirty civilians were injured, three of them seriously, during strikes on Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, the regional military administration said.
A Russian jet drone struck a Ukrainian village near the Polish border on Monday, damaging a border checkpoint, a Ukrainian regional official said.
– Winter fears –
Russia has deployed new jet drones, faster and more difficult to intercept than traditional models, based on Iran’s Shahed drones.
Zelensky last week renewed his call for Ukraine’s Western allies to step up military support, including for U.S.-made Patriot interceptors, capable of shooting down powerful ballistic missiles.
His request comes as Ukrainians consider their options as winter approaches, after last year’s Russian attacks on energy infrastructure knocked out electricity and heat as temperatures plummeted to -20C.
In an interview with Ukrainian television Sunday evening, Koretsky stopped short of saying that all city residents should leave before winter, calling it an “extreme measure.”
But he suggested that vulnerable people be relocated, to avoid overburdening emergency services struggling with the consequences of relentless Russian strikes.
“If a person lives on, say, the 16th floor and the power goes out, why, at that time, when state emergency service specialists need to be focused on dealing with the consequences, should we… look after people who need special attention?” he told TSN television.
“For these people, it is worth finding somewhere else to stay during the winter period.”
Meanwhile, European defense ministers debated whether the European Union needed its own NATO-style emergency mechanism to strengthen coordination against Russia’s “hybrid attacks.”
European governments say Moscow is stepping up its campaign of sabotage and interference against Ukraine’s supporters as Kremlin troops struggle to make headway on the front line.
Ukraine will postpone some spending commitments, including reconstruction work, due to delays in receiving aid from its foreign donors, Ukraine’s prime minister said on Monday.
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