Russian Strikes Kill Five in Kyiv

(MENAFN) The death toll from a sweeping Russian aerial assault on Ukraine has climbed to five, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed Thursday, as rescue teams continued to comb through rubble in the stricken capital.

"Five people were killed in Kyiv. Rescuers recovered the body of a 12-year-old girl from the rubble. Search and rescue operations at the site of the strike are ongoing," he said on Telegram.

The human cost extended well beyond the capital. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported on Telegram that at least 40 people were wounded in Kyiv alone, with a further seven injured in the surrounding Kyiv region, 28 in Kharkiv, and two in the Odesa region. A woman was also reportedly killed in Kherson, where local authorities said vehicles belonging to a UN humanitarian mission had come under fire.

In a separate post, Zelenskyy revealed the staggering scale of the overnight barrage, disclosing that Russian forces unleashed more than 670 attack drones and 56 missiles against Ukraine in a single assault.

"There were strikes using ballistic, aeroballistic, and cruise missiles. The main target of this attack was Kyiv," he said.

"Destruction was also recorded in the Kyiv region, while similar terrorist attacks targeted energy infrastructure in Kremenchuk, as well as port and residential buildings in Chornomorsk," Zelenskyy added.

The Ukrainian president further warned that since the start of Wednesday, Russian forces had deployed more than 1,560 drones against Ukrainian territory — a figure that underscores the relentless tempo of Moscow's aerial campaign.

The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged carrying out the overnight strikes, framing the assault as a retaliatory response to Kyiv's attacks on Russian energy infrastructure and claiming its missiles had struck Ukrainian military targets.

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