Russian air strikes k!lled at least 15 people, including a US citizen, and wounded dozens more in “one of the most terrible” overnight barrages aimed at Kyiv.
A kamikaze attack drone was filmed flying straight into the upper levels of a multi-storey residential building jn the early hours of Tuesday, June 17.
In the footage the drone explodes in a huge fireball, hitting the building while many would have been asleep.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said civilians were still trying to escape the rubble as of Tuesday morning, June 17.
The Russian attack struck 27 sites across the capital, including critical infrastructure sites as well as a nursery, according to the interior ministry. In total the barrage lasted almost nine hours, making it one of the longest of the conflict to date
More than 100 people have sought medical treatment, with 68 in hospital, said mayor Vitali Klitschko, who posted a video on Telegram while holding a cluster munition apparently used in the strike.
Mr Zelensky said 440 drones and 32 missiles were fired at Ukraine, in “one of the most terrible strikes on Kyiv”.
He added: “People are currently trying to get out of the rubble of an ordinary residential building. It is not clear how many there are.”
On Tuesday it emerged that the Trump administration had shelved an inter-agency working group it had set up to formulate strategies for pressuring Russia into speeding up peace talks with Ukraine.
The effort, which was established earlier in the spring, collapsed after it became apparent to participants that Donald Trump was not interested in adopting a more confrontational stance toward Moscow, sources told Reuters.
In the capital’s Solomianskyi district, a huge chunk had been taken out of the tower block by the Shahed strike, leaving piles of splintered wood and concrete and a gaping hole in the structure.
Standing by the attack site, Mr Klitschko said “there is no exact information yet about the buried [and] rescuers are working on the ground”.
A 62-year-old US citizen d!ed during the strike, the mayor added. The man’s identity has not been released.
Watch a video showing a drone hit a residential building in Kyiv below.
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