Two killed in Russian drone strike on Kyiv, Ukraine says

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Jan. 1, 2025, a residential building is seen damaged by a Russian drone strike in the city center of Kyiv, Ukraine. (AP)
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Updated 02 January 2025
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Two killed in Russian drone strike on Kyiv, Ukraine says

  • Two floors of a residential building in central Kyiv were partially destroyed in the strike, according to the State Emergency Service. Two people were killed, it said

KYIV: Russia launched a New Year’s Day drone strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Wednesday, killing two people, wounding at least six others and damaging buildings in two districts, authorities said.
Explosions boomed across the morning sky as Ukraine’s air force warned of incoming drones and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said air defenses were repelling an enemy attack.
Two floors of a residential building in central Kyiv were partially destroyed in the strike, according to the State Emergency Service. Two people were killed, it said.
Photos posted by the agency showed firefighters dousing a gutted corner of a building and rescuers helping elderly victims.
The National Bank of Ukraine said in a statement that one of its buildings nearby had been damaged by debris from a downed drone. Debris also damaged a non-residential building in a different neighborhood, authorities said.
“Even on New Year’s Eve, Russia was only concerned about how to hurt Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media in response to the strike.
Kyiv’s military said it had shot down 63 out of 111 drones launched by Russia overnight across various regions of Ukraine. Another 46 had been downed by electronic jamming, it added.
Russia has carried out regular air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front line of its nearly three-year-old invasion, in which its troops are claiming village after village in a grinding march across eastern Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Moscow’s forces fired 21 missiles at Kyiv and the northern Sumy region during an overnight strike, damaging buildings and infrastructure in the city of Shostka.
Separately on Wednesday, a 23-year-old volunteer worker was killed by Russian shelling in the southern front-line city of Kherson, city officials said.
The governor of Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, later said that a resident of a town northeast of the city died in hospital of injuries suffered during a drone attack.


Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says

Updated 14 January 2026
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Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says

  • Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under ​fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize ⁠the grid

KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts ​for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram ‌messaging app.
Water ‌utility pumping stations ‌switched ⁠to ​generators ‌and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s ⁠power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and ‌drones, seeking to knock out ‍electricity and heating ‍and hinder industry during the nearly ‍four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under ​fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize ⁠the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and ‌a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.