Russia launches 12-hour aerial assault on Kyiv, killing at least 12
A continuous 12-hour bombardment of Kyiv and surrounding regions killed at least a dozen people, including children, as Ukraine accused Russia of targeting civilians, while the EU warned the attacks aim to intimidate Western support.
Russia carried out a more than 12-hour aerial bombardment of Kyiv and eight other regions overnight into Tuesday, killing at least eight people in the capital and four elsewhere, according to Ukrainian officials. The strikes employed cruise and ballistic missiles, jet-powered drones, glide bombs and artillery, wounding over a dozen people, including three children, as schools reopened for the new academic year.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the campaign was intended to frighten Ukraine’s Western allies, adding that Russia’s ground forces were stalled and therefore turning to attacks on civilians from the air.
Among the dead in Kyiv were six employees of the state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia, whose chairman Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said were killed when a ballistic missile hit a depot. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that one of the victims was an Indian citizen and said nearly 350 emergency workers were deployed to respond.
Ukraine’s air force reported the attack began at 6 p.m. on Monday, using a mix of missiles, 218 drones and decoys, with about a third of the drones being jet-powered. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed the strike targeted weapons-manufacturing and storage facilities, describing it as a “massive strike” with precision-guided weapons.
In the Odesa region, the assault damaged civilian infrastructure, set fire to a textile factory and hit the Orlivka ferry crossing on the Romanian border. The northern Zhytomyr region also suffered fires at an industrial site and a warehouse.
Russia, meanwhile, said its air defenses intercepted 516 Ukrainian drones over 18 Russian regions and Crimea, and a drone attack in the Leningrad region sparked a fire at the Ust-Luga oil port.
At a summit in Kyrgyzstan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin that India supports ending the fighting, while Germany accused Russia of a drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport and announced the closure of a Russian consulate. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed the German claim as unfounded.