Russia pummeled Kyiv with the largest drone attack of the war, injuring at least 23 people and damaging buildings across the capital hours after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, officials said on Friday, Reuters reports.
Air raid sirens, the whine of kamikaze drones and booming detonations reverberated from early evening until dawn as Russia launched what Ukraine’s Air Force said was a total of 539 drones and 11 missiles.
The assault followed a phone conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which Trump expressed his disappointment over Putin’s unwillingness to end the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Moscow maintains that the conflict will continue until its goals are fully achieved.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is due to speak to Trump later on Friday about the war and a U.S. pause in some deliveries of air defense missiles, called the attack “deliberately massive and cynical.”
Kyiv officials said the attack damaged about 40 apartment blocks, passenger railway infrastructure, five schools and kindergartens, cafes and many cars in six of Kyiv’s 10 districts. Poland said the consular section of its embassy was damaged in central Kyiv, adding that staff were unharmed.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that 14 of the injured were taken to hospital.
