Russian drones slammed into Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences in the historic centre of Kyiv on Tuesday, in the latest deadly daylight assault on the capital.
One person was killed and four others were wounded in separate attacks on Dnipro in southeastern Ukraine.
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Kyiv has come under increasingly frequent Russian drone and missile strikes as Europe’s most devastating conflict since the Second World War enters its fifth year.
Footage posted online appeared to capture a fast-moving drone striking the National Academy of Sciences at a steep angle before exploding and filling the clear sky with acrid smoke.
Volodymyr Gorbulin, Ukraine’s former secretary of the national security and defence council, told state broadcaster Suspilne that he had been working at the academy when the strike occurred and suffered minor injuries.
Mr Gorbulin, 87, was Ukraine’s first director general of the National Space Agency and remains a highly respected academic.
He said his assistant, who had been near the building, was killed.
Volodymyr Gorbulin, pictured in 2017, when he led Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies
The National Academy of Sciences stands near the German embassy, a cathedral, the national opera and several government buildings.
Ukrainian authorities say Kyiv’s cultural institutions, government facilities and schools have also been hit in previous attacks.
The academy condemned what it called “Russian terror” and “barbarity”, saying the strike targeted “peaceful people who were simply at their workplaces… Ukrainian science, education and culture”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said another strike in the capital hit a medical facility.
More Russian attacks in the east
In Dnipro, Russian strikes killed four people and injured at least 19 at a business centre, while officials reported an unspecified number of deaths after a strike on a residential district in eastern Kharkiv.
Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky said Russian forces also damaged an ice cream factory in the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv, along with homes in Sumy to the north, Rivne in the northwest and Odesa in the south.
Thirty civilians were wounded in strikes on Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, including three people who suffered serious injuries, the regional military administration said.
“The danger persists in many regions. The enemy is intensifying its terror. I urge citizens not to ignore the alerts and to stay in safe places whenever possible,” Mr Koretsky warned.
Russia has begun using newer jet-powered drones that travel faster and are more difficult to intercept than traditional models based on Iranian Shahed drones.
Mr Zelensky renewed his appeal last week for Western allies to increase military assistance, including US-made Patriot systems capable of intercepting powerful ballistic missiles.
Firefighters work at the site of the latest Russian attack on Kyiv
His appeal comes as Ukrainians weigh how to prepare for the approaching winter, after Russian strikes on energy infrastructure last year left people without electricity and heating as temperatures fell as low as -20C.
Speaking on Ukrainian television on Sunday night, Mr Koretsky stopped short of urging all city residents to leave before winter, describing such a move as an “extreme step”.
He did, however, suggest that vulnerable people consider relocating to avoid placing additional pressure on emergency services already responding to the aftermath of repeated Russian attacks.
“If a person lives, for example, on the 16th floor and for instance the power gets cut, why at that moment, when the state emergency service specialists need to focus on dealing with the consequences, should we be … handling people who need extra attention?” he told TSN television.
“For such people, it’s worth finding an alternative place to stay for the winter period.”
EU discusses NATO-style defence clauses
At the same time, European defence ministers considered whether the European Union should establish its own NATO-style emergency mechanism to improve coordination against what officials describe as Russian “hybrid attacks”.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas (L) talks with Foreign Minister Helen McEntee (R) before the start of a European Defence Agency meeting in the Europa building in Brussels today
As she arrived for the meeting, Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said several hundred billion euro in frozen Russian assets should remain “kept on the table” as the EU searches for ways to support Ukraine’s defence.
European governments say Moscow is intensifying sabotage and interference aimed at Ukraine’s allies as Kremlin forces struggle to gain ground on the battlefield.
A Russian jet-powered drone also struck a Ukrainian village near the Polish border on Tuesday, damaging a border checkpoint, a regional Ukrainian official said.
The official provided no further information about the checkpoint or the scale of the damage.
Russia has carried out several attacks near Ukraine’s frontier with Poland in recent weeks, prompting condemnation from Warsaw and its European partners.
Earlier this month, a Russian drone struck a Warsaw-bound train in the same area, an incident Poland’s foreign minister called an “escalation”.
“Unfortunately, there was an impact near the border with Poland in the village of Starovoitove,” acting Volyn governor Roman Romaniuk said on Telegram.
“The blast wave damaged the checkpoint building at the entrance to the terminal,” Mr Romaniuk said.
He said there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
Starovoitove is about 2km from the Polish border and lies close to Ukraine’s Yagodyn crossing.
Poland’s defence minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, also reported the incident in a post on X.
“There was no violation of Polish airspace. Our air defence systems and aircraft were ready to respond,” Mr Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
Russia did not immediately issue a comment.
Earlier this month, the Kremlin said it would continue striking targets across the “whole” of Ukraine when questioned about a drone attack near the Polish border.
US General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe
US General condemns Russia’s ‘brazen’ attacks
Separately, NATO’s senior military commander said Russia’s sabotage campaign across Europe was failing to discourage countries from backing Ukraine.
“State-directed sabotage is growing increasingly brazen,” US General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told a committee of EU lawmakers.
Gen Grynkewich pointed to recent incidents including the discovery of a drone carrying explosives at a German airport and a Russian naval vessel firing flares at a Danish helicopter.
“These are clear examples of attempts to instil fear and fracture our unified support to Ukraine. It isn’t working,” he said, citing Denmark’s decision to fast-track new aid for Ukraine after the flare incident.
“If there is a hybrid attack on your country, reinforcing the will to support Ukraine will show the Russians that their strategy isn’t working and maybe have them back off that strategy,” he added.
Gen Grynkewich said NATO members working together “can handle these threats, and we are handling them”.
“Our information sharing and our coordination mechanisms are growing stronger every day, and while we can’t talk about everything we’re doing, I can say we are detecting, attributing and responding as these hybrid threats arise,” he said.
European governments say Moscow is stepping up sabotage and interference against Ukraine’s supporters as Kremlin forces continue fighting on the front line more than four years after Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Gen Grynkewich urged governments to publicly attribute incidents after responsibility had been established and to coordinate their response with allies.
