Russian forces struck the Ukrainian capital kyiv again, hours after a drone struck the National Academy of Sciences in the city’s historic center, killing at least two people.
Explosions were heard Tuesday morning in kyiv, with Mayor Vitali Klitschko saying missile debris fell into the courtyard of one building while a second one caught fire in another part of the city.
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The attacks come as Russia has begun hitting kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with faster, high-flying jet drones.
Emergency services said the strike on the National Academy of Sciences on Monday killed two people, with the body of one person found in the rubble later in the evening.
Video shared online appears to show a fast-moving drone hitting the building at a steep angle and exploding, sending smoke into a clear sky. People were seen leaning out of windows as bright orange flames engulfed part of the building.
Volodymyr Horbulin, former secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told public broadcaster Suspilne that he was working at the academy when it was attacked. He said his assistant, who was near the building, was killed and was also lightly injured.
The academy is close to the German embassy, a cathedral, the national opera and government buildings.
In a statement, the academy called the attack “Russian terror” and “barbarism” targeting “peaceful people who were simply at their workplace.”
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of cynicism for hitting a scientific institution during his working day.
“Russia is deliberately pushing the boundaries of what it thinks the world will tolerate,” he said in a statement, urging Ukraine’s allies to provide more air defense.
Jet drones
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Russian forces had also struck a medical facility in kyiv. It said at least nine people were killed in Russian drone strikes across the country, while more than 80 people were injured.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said Ukraine still had difficulty countering “Russia’s faster, high-flying jet drones.”
“New interceptors are being actively tested,” he said. “Some combat groups are using them, but, of course, some details still need to be fine-tuned to achieve sufficient effectiveness and scale. We are accelerating developments.”
According to the Ukrainian president, 90 of the 120 drones fired into Ukraine on Monday were jet-powered rather than propeller-powered, with an interception rate for this type of drone of 57%.
Broaden the goals
Officials said Russian strikes on kyiv also targeted a pharmaceutical company and gas stations. In other cities and regions, civilian facilities, businesses and communications infrastructure were affected.
In the southeastern city of Dnipro, a Russian drone attack on a business center killed three people and injured 19 others, authorities said. Another person was killed at a logistics office in Synelnykove, southeast of Dnipro, the regional governor said.
Emergency services said an attack on infrastructure in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia injured 32 people.
Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from kyiv, said Russia had hit economic targets across Ukraine “in a rolling series of strikes that have lasted for six days now,” day and night.
“Data centers are increasingly affected, as well as digital and communications infrastructure,” he said. “Kyiv Star, the country’s largest mobile phone provider, was hit on Sunday, as was the second largest, Vodafone Ukraine. The government would prepare for the worst: if that happens, a total communications blackout.”
The Russian attacks put kyiv “firmly in the eye of this war,” Hull added.
Ukraine has also increased attacks on Russia, targeting oil refineries as well as online retailers in an attempt to undermine revenue and support for Moscow’s war effort.
Zelensky said on Monday that Ukraine had struck Russian oil facilities in the Krasnodar region and two defense factories.
Both sides have denied deliberately targeting civilians.
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