Russian missile and drone attacks kill 13 and injure 132 in Kyiv
It was the highest number of children injured in a single attack on Kyiv since the start of Russia's invasion three years ago, according to public records consulted by The Associated Press.
A large part of a nine-storey residential building collapsed in the attack, City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said.
Residents at the scene of one Russian strike (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
Rescue teams searched for people trapped under the rubble.
Yana Zhabborova, 35, a resident of the damaged building, woke up to the sound of thundering explosions, which blew off the doors and windows of her home.
'It is just stress and shock that there is nothing left,' said Ms Zhabborova, a mother of a five-month-old baby and a five-year-old child.
Russia fired 309 Shahed and decoy drones and eight Iskander-K cruise missiles overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. Air defences intercepted and jammed 288 strike drones and three missiles, and five missiles and 21 drones struck targets.
Russian troops also struck a residential five-storey building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, according to the head of Donetsk regional military administration Vadym Filashkin.
He said one person was killed and at least 11 more injured.
Rescuers work in the rubble of a destroyed apartment building (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
Russia's Ministry of Defence said it had shot down 32 Ukrainian drones overnight.
A drone attack sparked a blaze at an industrial site in Russia's Penza region, local governor Oleg Melnichenko said, adding that there were no casualties.
In the Volgograd region, some trains were halted after drone wreckage fell on railway infrastructure, state operator Russian Railways said.
Russia's Defence Ministry also said that its forces had taken full control of the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.
Russian and Ukrainian troops have battled for control of Chasiv Yar for nearly 18 months. It includes a hilltop from which troops can attack other key points in the region that form the backbone of Ukraine's eastern defences.
Victor Trehubov, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, told The Associated Press that Russia's claim was untrue.
'Just a fabrication, there wasn't even a change in the situation,' he said.
A report on Thursday from Ukraine's Army General Staff said there had been seven clashes in Chasiv Yar in the past 24 hours. An attached map showed most of the town under Russian control.
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in Kyiv (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
DeepState, an open-source Ukrainian map widely used by the military and analysts, showed early on Thursday that neighbourhoods to the south and west of Chasiv Yar remained uncontrolled by either side.
The overnight drone attacks targeted the Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Sumy and Mykolaiv regions, with Ukraine's capital being the primary target, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
At least 27 locations across Kyiv were hit, Mr Tkachenko said, with the heaviest damage in the Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts. More than 100 buildings were damaged in the capital, including homes, schools, nurseries, medical facilities and universities, he added.
'Today, the world once again saw Russia's answer to our desire for peace with America and Europe,' Mr Zelensky said. 'New demonstrative killings. That is why peace without strength is impossible.'
He called on Ukraine's allies to follow through on defence commitments and pressure Moscow towards real negotiations.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline — August 8 — for peace efforts to make progress, or Washington will impose punitive sanctions and tariffs.
Western leaders have accused Mr Putin of dragging his feet in US-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land.
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