Russia launched its largest ever barrage on Kyiv early on Thursday, according to the city’s mayor, tearing open apartment buildings in a hours-long drone and missile attack that killed at least 17 people.
In Moscow, the Kremlin vowed to further ramp up the “pressure” on Kyiv after the strike, sticking to its no-compromise rhetoric as rescuers in Kyiv scoured the rubble for survivors.
The European Union’s top diplomat proposed new sanctions on Moscow, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the US for licences to manufacture Patriot air defence missiles to boost his country’s defences.
Russia has routinely launched waves of missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities during its more than four-year attack, which has become Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
AFP journalists in central and eastern Kyiv heard more than a dozen explosions and saw residents — some with children and pets — rushing to shelter in metro stations.
In the morning, locals stood on the rubble of destroyed apartment blocks, ripped apart by the barrage, as smoke poured over the Kyiv skyline. At one spot, a mother cried as she embraced her son in front of the smouldering debris.
Blasts started echoing out late on Wednesday, lasting into the early hours of Thursday as Russian missiles and drones rained down on residential areas in the city centre.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko described it as the “enemy’s most massive attack on the capital”, without elaborating. The state emergency services said at least 17 people had been killed. Kyiv urged its allies to send more air defence.
“Air defence supplies for Ukraine are an absolute and critical priority,” Zelensky said in a post on Facebook.
“We also very much count on a decision by the United States regarding licences for Patriots,” he added. Ukraine is seeking to manufacture munitions for the US-made missile interceptor system, one of its only ways of defending against Russian ballistic missiles, although defence experts say it will take time to set up production domestically.
Russia fired 496 drones and 74 missiles — including hard-to-intercept ballistic projectiles — Ukraine’s air force said.
It said it shot down 48 of the missiles and 476 drones.
“Half the building has been destroyed. The roof is gone,” said 32-year-old factory worker Sabina Mambetova, standing outside the rubble of her home in the eastern Darnytskyi district.
“I’ve been left without an apartment, alone with my child. I don’t know what to do now.” Some 52,000 people, including 4,500 children packed into underground stations to protect from the barrage — the highest number in recent years, according to the Kyiv metro.
Others hunkered in basements or corridors through the night as the blasts shook buildings across the city.
“It’s hard. My child is used to sleeping in complete silence and darkness,” 32-year-old doctor Kateryna Kucheryava said from the metro as the attack was unfolding.
“I picked her up and carried her down. She woke up and now she’s not sleeping anymore.” Along station platforms, locals set up tents, lay on air mattresses and camping chairs, while mothers tried to sleep clutching babies to their chests.
The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said she would propose new sanctions on Moscow over the attack. — AFP
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