Russian Drone and Missile Strikes Set Kyiv Ablaze, Kill Three Including Infant; Fires Reported Across Ukraine

Kyiv: Kyiv witnessed a night of devastation after a series of Russian drone and missile strikes left parts of the city ablaze and claimed civilian lives. Timur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, confirmed on Sunday that a fire erupted atop an administrative building in the Pecherskyi district. Witnesses reported thick plumes of smoke rising from the government complex, according to Reuters.

Officials said at least three people were killed in the onslaught, including an infant and a young woman. Eighteen others sustained injuries. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko described the wave of attacks as beginning with swarms of drones followed by missiles targeting residential and government areas. “The drone strikes killed the infant and a young woman,” Klitschko wrote on Telegram, adding that a pregnant woman was among the injured. Earlier, an elderly woman lost her life inside a bomb shelter in the Darnytskyi district east of the Dnipro River.

Emergency services reported extensive structural damage across several neighborhoods. In Darnytskyi, two floors of a four-storey residential building were gutted by fire, leaving the structure partially destroyed. In the Sviatoshynskyi district, sections of a nine-storey block collapsed. Falling drone debris triggered fires in a 16-storey apartment tower and two additional nine-storey buildings. Images released by authorities showed collapsed facades, shattered walls, and smoke filling the night sky.

Tkachenko accused Moscow of deliberately striking civilian infrastructure, writing that Russia was “consciously targeting non-military sites.”

The attacks were not limited to Kyiv. In central Ukraine, dozens of explosions rocked Kremenchuk, disrupting power in several areas, Mayor Vitalii Maletskyi reported. In Kryvyi Rih, Russian strikes damaged transport and municipal infrastructure, though no casualties were recorded, according to local military chief Oleksandr Vilkul. Further south, in Odesa, residential blocks caught fire after being hit, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.

Moscow has yet to issue a statement on the strikes. Both Russia and Ukraine continue to deny intentionally targeting civilians, though civilian areas have borne the brunt of the war since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.