Kiev [Ukraine], June 18: Russia has carried out a mass missile and drone attack on Ukraine's capital, Kiev, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 100 others, officials said.
A drone smashed into an apartment block, destroying dozens of flats and Ukraine's interior minister said the country had been hit by 440 drones and 32 missiles.
Officials said initially that 15 people had died in the capital, but later revised the number down to 10, with another two fatalities in the southern port city of Odesa.
The attack overnight into Tuesday was among the biggest on the capital since the start of Russia's full-scale war and President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was "one of the most terrifying strikes".
Russia's defence ministry said it had targeted Ukraine's military-industrial complexes and that all its targets had been hit. The strikes on Kiev lasted more than nine hours - sending residents fleeing to underground shelters from before midnight until after sunrise.
Officials said a ballistic missile hit a nine-storey apartment building in one district, with a total of 27 locations in the city coming under fire. An entrance to the building in the southwestern Solomyanskyi district came crashing down and there were concerns the number of casualties could rise.
A 62-year-old US citizen was among those killed, Kiev's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Standing in front of the remains of the building, Klitschko said more than 40 apartments had been destroyed and more people might be trapped under the rubble.
He accused Russia of firing cluster bomblets filled with ball bearings to kill as many people as possible.
"Waking up in utter nightmare: people trapped under rubble and full buildings collapsed," Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko wrote on X.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that a variety of buildings had come under Russian attack, including residential, critical infrastructure and educational facilities.
People were still under the rubble by late afternoon and rescue work was going on at two sites, he said. Klymenko explained that initial mistakes made in counting the dead often happened because body parts were wrongly identified.
Loud explosions rocked the city in the early hours of Tuesday, along with the rattle of the machine guns used by mobile Ukrainian air defence units to shoot down drones.
More sirens later in the morning disrupted rescue operations in the city, hampering emergency workers searching the rubble for survivors.
Russia has intensified its air attacks against Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, with a tactic of sending large waves of drones and decoys designed to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences.
Kiev has launched attacks of its own, as direct talks between the warring sides failed to secure a ceasefire or significant breakthrough.
Russia accused Ukrainian forces of launching a missile strike on a district in occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, and Russia-appointed officials said at least 10 people had been hurt.
A reported 147 Ukrainian drones were shot down over nine Russian regions overnight, Russian news agencies said.
President Zelensky, who has travelled to the G7 summit in Canada, called Russia's most recent wave of strikes "pure terrorism".
He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of carrying out the large-scale strikes "solely because he can afford to continue this war".
"It is bad when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to this," he said, adding: "It is the terrorists who should feel the pain, not normal, peaceful people." Drone strikes also hit the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, killing two people and wounding 10 others, officials said.
Source: Qatar Tribune
