A Russian drone struck a school in Kyiv and ignited a fire this morning, sending flames through the building as pupils sheltered underground. No injuries were reported, Ukrainian authorities said.
The assault also hit a key bridge spanning the Dnipro River, part of an intensifying wave of Russian attacks on the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The Southern Bridge escaped serious damage, though metro services crossing it were suspended temporarily.
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Rescue crews searched through debris outside the blackened school, where windows had been blown out. CCTV footage verified by Reuters captured a bright fireball bursting from the building’s third floor at the moment the drone struck.
“They (Russians) spare no one,” said school director Valentyna Chorna, who said more than 100 students had been inside when the attack took place.
Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians, despite repeatedly striking Ukrainian cities and towns since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Rescuers work at a damaged school hit by a Russian jet-drone strike in Kyiv
Escalating strikes
The strikes formed part of continuous overnight and daytime attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Russia has increasingly deployed jet-powered drones, which Ukraine has struggled to intercept amid shortages of air-defence systems.
Yesterday, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had begun what appeared to be a cold-weather campaign aimed at the country’s power infrastructure.
The bridge attack was particularly significant, political analyst Vadym Denysenko wrote on Facebook, arguing that such infrastructure had until recently been viewed as a “red line”.
The Institute of Nuclear Research in Kyiv said it was hit by a drone late yesterday, but reported that radiation levels remained within normal limits.
On Monday, a Russian drone struck the National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv, killing one person and injuring several others.
Attack on Odesa
Russia has stepped up its air campaign as the pace of its broader gains along the front line has slowed this year.
Regional officials said one person was wounded today when a Russian attack hit a business centre in Odesa, the Black Sea port city.
A woman and her baby walk past an office building damaged by a Russian strike in Odesa, Ukraine
City administration chief Serhiy Lysak said infrastructure had been damaged but provided no additional details.
Odesa and the surrounding region have faced repeated attacks, some of which are intended to disrupt Ukraine’s export revenues.
Russia, which maintains that it strikes only military targets, said it had targeted a data centre in Odesa and a cargo ship in the nearby port of Chornomorsk.
Ukraine has likewise intensified strikes inside Russia, targeting oil refineries and major online retailers in an effort to weaken Moscow’s war effort.
Local authorities said one man was killed when a Ukrainian drone exploded in the town of Graivoron, in Russia’s Belgorod region.
