Vladimir Putin‘s troops have killed at least nine people and injured another 63 in a brutal overnight strike on Kyiv – as crucial Russia and Ukraine peace talks stall. A large-scale Russian missile and drone attack struck Kyiv and left 42 people hospitalised, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Desperate rescue operations were still underway this morning to find bodies under the rubble. Meanwhile, fires were reported in several residential buildings said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city military administration. The attack, which began around 1am, hit at least four neighbourhoods in Kyiv. In Sviatoshynkskyi district, a fire broke out in a residential building that was damaged in the assault.
Oksana Bilozir, a student, was receiving medical care for a head injury near the impact site. She said that she heard a loud explosion after the air alarm blared and began to grab her things to flee to a shelter when another blast caused her home’s walls to crumble and the lights to go off.
The horrific attack came hours after peace negotiations appeared to stall, with President Donald Trump lashing out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying Zelenksyy was prolonging the “killing field” by pushing back on ceding Crimea to Russia as part of a potential peace plan.
Zelenskyy has said multiple times that recognising occupied territory as Russian is a red line for his country.
“I honestly don’t even know how this will all end, it’s very scary,” said Bilozir, referring to the war against Russia’s invasion.
“I only believe that if we can stop them on the battlefield, then that’s it. No diplomacy works here.”
More fires were reported in the Shevchenkivsky and Holosiivskyi districts. Anastasiia Zhuravlova, 33, a mother of two, was sheltering in a basement after multiple blasts damaged her home.
Her family was sleeping when the first explosion shattered their windows and sent kitchen appliances flying in the air. Shards of glass rained down on them as they rushed to take cover in the corridor.
“After that we came to the shelter because it was scary and dangerous at home,” she said.
The attack comes as the White House is reportedly planning to acknowledge the Crimean peninsula – which was illegally annexed in 2014 – as part of Russia in a new attempt to force through a peace deal in Ukraine.
The proposals would also allow Russia to hold on to areas it has gained since the full-scale invasion in 2022, effectively ‘freezing’ the frontline and ceding around a fifth of Ukraine to Putin. The plan was reportedly presented to Ukraine in Paris last week, and is expected to be discussed further when US, Ukrainian and European officials meet for talks in London later today.
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