LONDON — A Russian aerial strike that hit several residential buildings in Kyiv killed six people, including a 6-year-old boy, the head of the city’s military administration said Thursday.
A building in the Sviatoshynskyi district was a “direct hit,” Tymur Tkachenko said in a message on Telegram, adding that it was one of 27 locations in Kyiv that were struck by Russia overnight.
At least 52 people were injured, he said. Nine children were among the more than 30 people transported to hospitals for their injuries, he said.
Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building hit during Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 31, 2025.
Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
“It’s a horrible morning in Kyiv,” Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, said in a social media post. “The brutal Russian strikes destroyed entire residential buildings and damaged schools and hospitals. Civilians are injured and killed.”
Women react outside a destroyed apartment building after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 31, 2025.
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
“There are still people under the rubble,” Sybiha added.
The Russian strike in the middle of the night on the apartment building, where the six people were killed, amounted to a “particularly sinister act,” said Ruslan Stefanchuk, a lawmaker who chairs the Ukrainian parliament.
“This is not merely a crime — it is further proof that Russia is deliberately waging war against the Ukrainian people,” he said on social media. “Its targets are our homes, our children, and our basic right to live freely in our own country.”