Russian strikes on Kyiv kill at least 15 overnight

At least 14 people were killed in Kyiv and one more in the surrounding region during Russian bombardments overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. Local authorities announced this on Thursday morning. Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, spoke of numerous victims and dozens of injured. An earlier toll from emergency services had put the total at seven dead in Kyiv and its surroundings.

In the Brovary district near Kyiv, another person died, according to the head of the local administration, Timur Tkachenko.

Children's hospital also hit

In the Solomianskyi district, the upper floors of a nine-storey residential building collapsed and a fire broke out. In another building in the area, people were trapped. A children's hospital in the same district was hit by a Russian ballistic missile: the building is devastated, windows were shattered throughout the area and several cars caught fire. Shops and public venues were also destroyed.

Emergency crews worked in two apartment buildings and a school to free people trapped in garages, basements and shelters. The Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv lasted nearly nine hours.

In Russia, Moscow's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said on Thursday morning that 250 drones had been launched toward the Moscow region since the previous evening, most of them destroyed by air defences. In the Moscow region alone, 28 drones were shot down.

Poland scrambled its air force within its own airspace to prevent any incident linked to the Russian air offensive on Ukraine and to ensure the safety of its population. In Romania, two Spanish fighter jets and a Romanian army helicopter took off overnight to monitor targets near the Ukrainian-Romanian border. A drone entered Romanian airspace before crashing in an uninhabited area near Grindu, in western Romania.