Russian strikes killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens in Kyiv in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on Tuesday, June 17, called “one of the most horrific attacks” on the capital. Zelensky said “an entire section of an apartment block” was destroyed and rescuers were searching under the rubble for possible survivors. The strike was one of the deadliest on Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and came as direct peace talks between the two sides appeared to stall.
Some 27 locations in Kyiv were hit, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said. One person was also killed and 10 wounded in a strike on the southern port city of Odesa, while attacks on the Sumy and Kherson regions later in the day killed two others, authorities said. A total of 440 drones and 32 missiles were used in the strikes nationwide, Zelensky said.
“Kyiv has faced one of the most horrific attacks,” Zelensky wrote on Facebook. “Right now in Kyiv, efforts are underway to rescue people from under the rubble of an ordinary residential building – it’s still unclear how many remain trapped,” he said. He urged the international community not to “turn a blind eye.”
Russian President Vladimir “Putin does this solely because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on,” he said. Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said in a social media post: “This is how Russia fights – it kills civilians in ordinary homes, deliberately.”
US citizen dead
Interior Minister Igor Klymenko wrote on Telegram: “27 locations in different districts of the capital came under enemy fire tonight.” He added that “residential buildings, educational institutions and critical infrastructure facilities” had all been hit. “The death toll has risen to 14 people. As of now, 44 people have been injured in Kyiv,” Klymenko said. He added that six others had been injured in Odesa and another in Chernihiv.
A total of 114 were wounded in the attack on Kyiv, with 68 of them hospitalised, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said. He had earlier reported that a US citizen had died in a Russian attack on the capital’s Solomyansky district. “During the attack on Kyiv (…) a 62-year-old US citizen died in a house opposite to the place where medics were providing assistance to the injured,” Klitschko said on Telegram. Yermak slammed the new Russian strikes on “residential buildings in Kyiv,” saying on Telegram that Moscow was “continuing its war against civilians.”
Russia claims strike on ‘military-industrial’ sites
Meanwhile, Russia’s army said it hit “military-industrial” sites near Kyiv, after the drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital. Russia “launched a group strike with high-precision air, ground and sea-based weapons, as well as strike drones on military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv region,” the defence ministry said in a statement, which was similar to those it puts out after most major attacks.
More than three years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has kept up its attacks despite efforts by the United States to broker a ceasefire. Talks have stalled. Moscow has rejected the “unconditional” truce demanded by Kyiv and its European allies, while Ukraine has dismissed Russia’s demands as “ultimatums.”
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On Monday, Zelensky had said he hoped to speak with his US counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada. But the Ukrainian leader was expected to arrive at the G7 after the departure of the American president, who cut short his stay in the Canadian Rockies as Israel pounded Iran.
