Russia Launches Massive Drone and Missile Attack on Kyiv, Killing Four

Russia launched a ferocious overnight assault on Ukraine with 595 exploding drones and 48 missiles, killing at least four people and injuring 70 in the deadliest barrage on the capital since last month's strike that claimed 21 lives. Kyiv bore the brunt of the onslaught, with civilian neighborhoods reduced to rubble, igniting fears of escalating terror amid the grinding war.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Administration, confirmed the casualties via Telegram, revealing that 10 were wounded in the city alone, including a 12-year-old girl among the dead. Thick plumes of black smoke billowed from blasts near the city center, as Ukraine's air force reported intercepting or jamming 566 drones and 45 missiles in a valiant defensive effort. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decried the attack on X, noting strikes across Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, and Odesa, with the Interior Ministry later updating the nationwide injured toll to 70 and over 100 civilian sites damaged.

In Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov reported 27 wounded, including three children, and more than two dozen buildings ravaged in the capital. "This vile assault timed just after UN General Assembly week exposes Moscow's true stance: unrelenting aggression that demands the world's harshest response," Zelenskyy wrote, vowing to press for global pressure on Russia.

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Amid the chaos, U.S. Vice President JD Vance disclosed in a Fox News interview that Washington is evaluating Ukraine's request to purchase Tomahawk cruise missiles, boasting a 1,000-mile range that could reach Moscow. "The president will decide, but we're reviewing it alongside other requests," Vance said, hinting at potential shifts in U.S. support for Kyiv's defense.

Kyiv's residents, hardened by nearly three years of war, recounted harrowing escapes. Mayor Vitali Klitschko detailed hits on residential towers, a medical center, a kindergarten, and over 20 sites citywide. At the central train station, families huddled in underpasses amid anti-aircraft fire and drone hums; one woman, Erika, lamented, "The sky has turned black again—it's happening too often."

Ilona Kovalenko, 38, survived a direct hit on her Solomianskyi district apartment building, where explosions shattered windows and killed her 12-year-old neighbor, Oleksandra. "A bloodied neighbor banged on our door, screaming for help to save her daughter," Kovalenko told the AP. "She died instantly. We're all in shock." Emergency crews wielded chainsaws to sift debris from another blasted high-rise, where retirees like Volodymyr expressed disbelief: "No factories here—just homes. We thought we were safe."

Pastor Mark Sergeev, displaced from Russian-held Melitopol, faced fresh horror when a wardrobe collapsed on him from the blast, burying him in glass while his family upstairs endured the quake. "It felt like a death sentence," he recalled, pulling his young son from rubble after his older boy cried out they were alive. Having testified to U.S. Congress on persecution in occupied zones, Sergeev mourned, "We lost our second home—Russia's FSB seized our church and house in 2022 at gunpoint."

The strikes rippled beyond Ukraine, prompting Poland to scramble fighter jets in a "preventive" response as blasts echoed near the border. Warsaw's moves underscore rising European alarms over spillover risks, following Russian drones on Polish soil and jets in Estonian airspace—claims Moscow denies.

Zelenskyy's Saturday announcement of a $90 billion U.S. "mega deal" for weapons and Ukrainian drones offered a glimmer of hope, even as Russia's Defense Ministry boasted downing 41 Ukrainian drones overnight. As Ukraine tallies the human cost and rebuilds shattered lives, the assault signals Russia's unyielding campaign, testing Kyiv's resilience and the world's will to counter it.

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