Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital and its surrounding region killed at least eight people in the early morning hours, seven in the city of Kyiv, where Agence France-Presse journalists heard dozens of explosions, on the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara.
“The enemy is firing ballistic missiles,” said Timur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv military administration.
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In the Darnitsky district, debris fell onto a 25-story apartment building, trapping residents in the upper-floor apartments, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Fires broke out on two floors of another apartment building in the neighborhood.
Elsewhere, in the Pontilsky neighborhood, debris that fell on a 21-story apartment building caused “devastation,” and a warehouse caught fire in the Obolonskyi district, according to the same source.
“The death toll” in the city “now stands at seven,” according to a recent statement by Mr. Tkachenko, who did not specify exactly where the victims lost their lives. He also mentioned 24 injured.
In the capital’s region, in Buchansk, one person was killed and ten others were injured, six of whom were taken to a hospital, said Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the Kyiv region’s military administration, accusing the Russian armed forces of “once again” and “deliberately” targeting “civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
Russia has been bombing Ukraine daily since the war began in February 2022.
The Russian military has stated that it would retaliate against Ukrainian attacks with missiles and unmanned aerial systems—nearly 500 — that were launched against Russia on Friday night into Saturday, particularly against the Leningrad Oblast, whose capital is St. Petersburg.
Last week, massive Russian strikes with missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles on Kyiv left 30 dead and nearly 100 wounded. It was the deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital since the war began.
The first footage of the impacts in Kyiv.
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Part of Crimea Without Power
Meanwhile, in Sevastopol, on the Crimean Peninsula—which Moscow annexed in 2014—power was cut in the early morning hours, due to a Ukrainian attack on energy infrastructure, announced Russia-appointed Governor Mikhail Razvazayev.
“Special measures have been implemented at various facilities, and public agencies are operating thanks to backup power systems. Experts are currently doing everything they can to restore power to homes,” the governor added.
He advised residents to conserve battery power on their cell phones and noted that trolleybuses would not be running in the morning in the city of 550,000 residents, the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Crimea was placed under a “state of emergency” in late June, due to the consequences of repeated Ukrainian strikes, particularly fuel shortages and power outages.
In recent weeks, the Ukrainian armed forces have been attempting to impose an energy blockade on Crimea by striking infrastructure and tankers supplying the peninsula.
Crimea, home to many Russian military bases, is frequently targeted by Ukrainian attacks, particularly by unmanned surface vessels, which forced Moscow to withdraw part of its fleet from the peninsula’s ports. However, this is the first time since 2022 that it has faced such energy shortages.
More broadly, Kyiv has recently intensified its attacks against Russia and Russian-controlled areas within Ukrainian territory, specifically targeting energy sector facilities to deprive Moscow of revenue that, according to the Ukrainian side, is funding the war.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Shabianin, reported in the early morning hours that 11 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles heading toward the Russian capital had been shot down.
Negotiations at an impasse
Negotiations mediated by the United States to end the deadliest armed conflict in Europe since World War II remain at an impasse.
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to meet the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, where the heads of state and government of the 32 member countries are expected to arrive starting tomorrow.
A high-ranking U.S. official explained that the goal is for the two leaders to discuss “how we can end the war,” which he described as “a long-standing priority.”
“There is a real prospect that this war will come to an end, and America’s determination is crucial,” Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said on Saturday via X.
At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, European governments and the Canadian government will pledge military aid worth 70 billion euros to Ukraine in 2026 and 2027, according to diplomatic sources.
On the front lines, Russian armed forces have been advancing at a very slow pace in recent months, as the ubiquitous unmanned aerial systems make it nearly impossible for vehicles—especially heavy ones—to move, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides.
However, the Kremlin announced on Friday that Konstantinovka, a stronghold of the Ukrainian army in the eastern Donetsk region, had been captured, full control of which is one of the war’s primary objectives. The Russian announcement was denied by Kyiv, which insists that its own troops control the city and that fighting continues.
