Kyiv, Ukraine — August 29, 2025: Kyiv awoke in mourning Friday after one of the most devastating overnight strikes in months left at least 15 people dead, including four children, and wounded nearly 50 others, reported by Al Jazeera News.
Explosions thundered across the capital in the early hours as waves of Russian drones and missiles tore into residential neighborhoods and civic institutions. Whole sections of apartment blocks collapsed, trapping families inside. Rescue crews dug through rubble into the morning light, with officials warning the casualty toll could still rise.
“This was a deliberate act of terror,” declared Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration. “Everything is destroyed.”
Four children between the ages of two and 17 were among those killed, Tkachenko said. Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced Friday would be observed as a day of mourning, with flags lowered and public events suspended.
The strikes marked Russia’s first major combined assault on Kyiv since U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met earlier this month in Alaska, a summit billed as an opening toward peace. Instead, Moscow unleashed one of its largest aerial offensives of the war: according to Ukraine’s Air Force, nearly 600 drones and decoys and 31 missiles were launched nationwide overnight.
Ukraine said its air defenses intercepted most—downing 563 drones and 26 missiles—but the remainder inflicted devastating damage. In Kyiv alone, seven districts were hit, including the headquarters of the European Union’s delegation to Ukraine and the British Council. Both institutions reported damage to their offices but no casualties.
International condemnation was swift. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Brussels would summon Russia’s envoy, calling the strike on diplomatic missions “a deliberate choice to escalate and mock peace efforts.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer decried the “senseless Russian strikes” and pledged support for Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron called the attack “terror and barbarism,” while U.N. Secretary General António Guterres urged for “a just, comprehensive, and sustainable peace.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a post on X, said the strikes were Moscow’s “clear response” to global calls for a ceasefire. He urged allies to impose new sanctions, pointedly calling for reactions from China and Hungary. “The death of children should stir the world,” he wrote. “Russia understands only strength and pressure.”
On the ground, survivors spoke of chaos and terror. Oleksandr Khilko, whose sister’s apartment building was struck, said he heard screams from beneath the rubble. “I pulled three people out alive,” he told the Associated Press, his clothes covered in dust. “It’s inhuman, striking civilians.”
Beyond Kyiv, Russian missiles damaged power facilities, leaving tens of thousands without electricity in central Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine’s military claimed successful strikes on two Russian oil refineries, sparking fires in the Samara region.
For many Ukrainians, the fresh assault reinforced their distrust of diplomacy. “If you ask people here about peace talks, they laugh bitterly,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Zein Basravi, reporting from a wrecked apartment complex. “They say negotiations sound like the punchline to a bad joke.”
As Kyiv buries its dead, the war shows no sign of ending—only deepening.
