Kyiv, Ukraine — A Russian missile strike on a residential block in the Ukrainian capital has left at least 20 people dead and dozens more injured, according to emergency services. Rescue teams continue to search through the rubble of the apartment building in the Desnianskyi district, a neighbourhood in the northern part of the city. The attack, which occurred at 4:30 a.
m. local time, is one of the deadliest in Kyiv in recent weeks. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike as an act of deliberate terror.
“This is not a military target. This is a residential building. This is a massacre,” he said in a statement.
The Russian Defence Ministry has not commented. Western intelligence sources suggest the missile used was a Kh-101 cruise missile, fired from a Tu-95 bomber operating over the Caspian Sea. The strike comes as Ukraine’s forces maintain pressure on Russian positions in the east and south, with fighting concentrated around Bakhmut and Zaporizhzhia.
International condemnation has been swift. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an immediate end to attacks on civilian infrastructure. The UK Foreign Secretary described the strike as “a further demonstration of Putin’s ruthless brutality”.
Rescue operations are expected to continue for at least another 24 hours, with the death toll likely to rise.
