Russia launched a fresh wave of drone and missile attacks on Kyiv early Tuesday, killing two people and injuring at least 10 others, shortly after US peace negotiators left the Ukrainian capital.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the strikes sparked fires in several parts of the city, with falling debris damaging residential buildings and other facilities.
A five-storey apartment building and a three-storey residential block were among the structures affected, while emergency crews were deployed to contain the fires and assist residents.
Officials said the attack damaged at least 14 high-rise buildings, as well as a student dormitory, school, clinic, warehouses and other sites.
The latest assault followed a brief lull in Russian air attacks during the visit of US peace envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday as Washington intensified efforts to broker an end to the conflict.
The US envoys had travelled to Kyiv after talks in Moscow, where the Kremlin indicated that it remained open to reviving three-way peace negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned the renewed attacks, saying Russia had escalated its military campaign immediately after the US envoys departed.
He called on Ukraine’s international partners to increase pressure on Moscow and provide additional air-defence interceptors, warning that Kyiv’s supplies for countering ballistic missiles were running critically low.
Russia had intensified its aerial campaign around Kyiv in the days before the diplomatic meetings, with attacks occurring almost continuously rather than being concentrated mainly at night.
The attacks have increasingly involved faster, jet-powered drones, which Ukrainian officials say have caused deaths and disrupted daily life in the capital and surrounding areas.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had targeted military and logistics facilities in Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as sites in the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk.
The escalation also prompted neighbouring Poland, a NATO and European Union member, to activate military aircraft as a precaution against potential Russian missile threats from the conflict in Ukraine.
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The Polish army said the preventive operation was launched amid the attacks, while Lublin Airport temporarily suspended flights because of the military activity.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone strikes in Russia reportedly damaged civilian infrastructure and injured people in the Volga city of Saratov, about 730 kilometres southeast of Moscow.
Saratov is home to a major oil refinery operated by Russian state-owned energy company Rosneft, alongside other industrial and military facilities.
