Kiev, Ukraine
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Russia launched the biggest air attack of the Ukrainian War overnight on Sunday, deploying over 800 drones and attacking Kiev government buildings for the first time.
The toddler was among at least two people killed during a drone strike in several home buildings in the capital, but it was under the siren of the air raid for 11 hours.
The Moscow army fired a total of 810 drones, four ballistic missiles and nine cruise missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Most were fired down by air defense, but 54 drones and nine missiles collided with targets across Ukraine, the Air Force said.
This surpasses the scale of the attack in July, previously the biggest war that began with a full-scale invasion of Russian neighbors in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky described the attack as “despicable” and described it as “now, when real diplomacy began long ago, it was a deliberate crime and an extension of the war.”
“The world can stop killing Kremlin criminals. All we need is political will,” Zelensky said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Swilydenko called it a “massive attack” and said that the cities of Krivii Li, Dnipro, Klemenchuk and Odesa all had fired up just like Kiev.
In the capital, the buildings that house the prime minister’s office and several government ministries were hit by the attack, she said.
“For the first time, government buildings, roofs and upper floors have been damaged by enemy attacks, and rescuers are putting out the fire.
The building is located in Kiev’s government district next to the parliament and near the president’s office.
“We rebuild our buildings, but we cannot regain our lost lives. Every day our enemies terrorize and kill people across the country,” Swillidenko said.
Rescuers found the infant’s body under the tiled ble of a building in the west Kiev district of Sviatsinsky, according to Timur Tokachenko, head of the city’s military regime.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the child also had young women killed.
The nine-story apartment in the Sviatoshynskyi district was “severely damaged,” Klitschko said in a telegram post, adding that the fourth floor of the building was “partially destroyed.”
“In addition, in the Sviatsinsky area, debris struck a 16-storey residential building, causing fires to occur on the 15th and 16th floors,” Klitschko said. He said two additional, largely diverse apartment blocks in the same district had fires, causing another building in the eastern Daanitsky district.
Ukrainian Emergency Services (SES) said at least 18 people were injured and described the drone strike against the capital as a “massive attack.” The agency has released images showing some buildings with large holes in the sides and firefighters work on site.
Earlier on Sunday morning, a Russian attack in western Ukraine near the Polish border had revitalized Polish and Allied aircraft to ensure Polish airspace security, Reuters said.
“The Polish and Allied aircraft are operating in airspace, but ground air defense and radar reconnaissance systems are in top form,” the Polish operational order said in a post in X.
