KIEV/MOSCOW, May 15 — A total of 24 people, including three children, were killed on Thursday after a Russian strike hit a nine-story apartment building in Kiev during a massive drone and missile attack, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service said Friday.
According to the agency, 48 others were injured in the attack, which caused a section of the residential building in the Darnytskyi district to collapse.
During a rescue operation that lasted for more than 28 hours, emergency workers cleared more than 3,000 cubic meters of debris from the destroyed structure.
Overnight into Thursday, Russia launched 675 drones and 56 missiles at Ukraine, with Kiev being the main target, said the Ukrainian Air Forces. Air defense units shot down 652 drones and 41 missiles.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that the Russian forces had carried out a series of strikes against Ukrainian military-related targets from Tuesday to Friday in response to Ukrainian attacks on civilian facilities in Russia.
The ministry said the strikes targeted enterprises of Ukraine’s defense-industrial complex, as well as fuel and energy, transport and port infrastructure facilities used by the Ukrainian military.
Military airfields, drone assembly and storage sites, ammunition and fuel depots, and temporary deployment points of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries were also hit, it added.
Russia made no immediate public comment on the apartment building attack. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
