Kyiv Hit by Missile Assault Following Deadly Strike on National Academy of Sciences

Russian forces launched another barrage on Kyiv early Tuesday, hours after a drone struck the National Academy of Sciences in the city’s historic centre, killing at least two people.

Explosions rocked Kyiv in the early hours, with Mayor Vitali Klitschko reporting missile debris falling in one building’s courtyard and a second structure catching fire elsewhere in the city.

Jet-powered drones

The attacks coincide with Russia’s escalated use of faster, high-altitude jet drones against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

Emergency officials confirmed that Monday’s strike on the National Academy of Sciences killed two people, with one body recovered from the rubble later that evening.

Online video appeared to show a fast-moving drone slamming into the building at a steep angle and exploding, sending smoke into a clear sky while people leaned from windows as bright orange flames engulfed part of the structure.

Volodymyr Horbulin, a former secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, told public broadcaster Suspilne he was at work at the academy during the attack. He said his assistant, who was near the building, was killed and that he sustained minor injuries.

The academy is situated near the German Embassy, a cathedral, the national opera house, and government buildings.

In a statement, the academy denounced the attack as “Russian terror” and “barbarity” aimed at “peaceful people who were simply at their workplaces.”

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of cynicism for striking a scientific institution during working hours.

“Russia is deliberately expanding the boundaries of what it believes the world will tolerate,” he said in a statement, urging Ukraine’s allies to supply more air defences.

Jet-powered drones

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces also struck a medical facility in Kyiv on Monday. He reported at least nine killed nationwide in Russian drone strikes, with more than 80 wounded.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy acknowledged Ukraine’s continued difficulty countering the faster, high-flying Russian jet-powered drones.

“New interceptors are being actively tested,” he said. “Some combat groups are using them, but details still need refinement for sufficient effectiveness and scale. We are accelerating the developers.”

According to the Ukrainian president, 90 of 120 drones fired at Ukraine on Monday were jet-propelled rather than propeller-driven, with a 57 percent interception rate for this type.

Widening targets

Officials said Russian strikes on Kyiv also targeted a pharmaceutical company and petrol stations. In other cities and regions, civilian facilities, businesses, and communications infrastructure were hit.

In the southeastern city of Dnipro, a Russian drone attack on a business centre killed three and wounded 19, according to officials. Another person was killed in a logistics office in Synelnykove, southeast of Dnipro, the regional governor said.

Emergency services reported that an attack on infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia wounded 32 people.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from Kyiv, said Russia has been hitting economic targets across Ukraine “in a rolling series of strikes that have been ongoing for six days now,” during day and night.

“Data centres are increasingly being hit, as well as digital and communications infrastructure,” he said. “Kyiv Star, the country’s biggest cell provider, was hit on Sunday, as was the second biggest, Vodafone Ukraine. The government is preparing for the worst—a total communications blackout.”

Hull added that the Russian attacks have brought Kyiv “firmly into the eye of this war.”

Ukraine has also intensified attacks on Russia, targeting oil refineries and online retailers to undermine revenues and support for Moscow’s war effort.

Zelenskyy said Monday that Ukraine struck Russian oil facilities in the Krasnodar region and two defence plants.

Both sides have denied deliberately targeting civilians.

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