Russian attacks kill 14 in Kyiv as Zelensky visits UK

Russian drones and missiles killed at least 14 civilians and injured several dozen others in Ukraine in overnight attacks, local officials said on Monday, with nine deaths reported in the capital, Kyiv, where an apartment building partially collapsed.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 23 Ukrainian drones overnight into Monday.

The attacks came as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky began a visit to the United Kingdom, where he met privately with King Charles III.

Russia fired 352 drones and decoys overnight, as well as 11 ballistic missiles and five cruise missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defenses intercepted or jammed 339 drones and 15 missiles before they could reach their targets, a statement said.

Separately, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Monday that Ukraine’s path to Nato is irreversible, adding that a Nato response to any Russian attack on the alliance would be “devastating.”

“There’s an irreversible path of Ukraine to Nato (...) that is still the truth today and it will still be true on Thursday after this summit,” he told reporters ahead of a two-day summit of the Alliance in The Hague.

A Russian ballistic missile strike destroyed a high school later in the day in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing two staff, authorities said. No children were on the premises due to the summer vacation, said Zelensky, who described the strike as “absolutely insane.”

The strikes came nearly a week after a Russian attack killed 28 people in Kyiv, 23 of them in a residential building that collapsed after a direct missile hit. Russia has also hit civilian areas with long-range strikes in an apparent attempt to weaken Ukrainian morale.

Russian forces have been trying to drive deeper into Ukraine as part of a summer push along the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line, though the Institute for the Study of War said progress has failed to make significant gains.

“Russian forces are largely relying on poorly trained infantry to make gains in the face of Ukraine’s drone-based defence,” the Washington-based think tank said late on Sunday.

Zelensky said preliminary data indicated that Russian forces used North Korean missiles in the Kyiv strike. He described Russia, North Korea and Iran, which has provided drones to Russia, as a “coalition of murderers.”

Zelensky said Ukraine’s defense and new ways to pressure Russia will be the two main topics in his visit to the United Kingdom on Monday. Zelenskyy met privately with King Charles III and stayed for lunch, Buckingham Palace said. He was also expected to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of this week’s Nato summit in The Hague, Starmer’s office said.

Drones and missiles hit residential areas, hospitals and sports infrastructure in numerous districts across Kyiv, emergency services said.

The most severe damage was in Shevchenkivskyi district, where a section of a five-story apartment building collapsed.

Nine people were killed in the district, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Ten others, including a pregnant woman, were rescued from a nearby high-rise that also sustained heavy damage. Dozens of vehicles were burned or mangled by flying debris.

The Russian attack also damaged the entrance to the Sviatoshyn subway station in Kyiv, slightly injuring two people, said Timur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration. He said more than 30 people were injured across the city.

Underground subway stations have served as shelters for those seeking protection from aerial attacks. During almost nightly strikes, stations across Kyiv are often filled with people waiting out the danger.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the latest strikes demonstrated Russia’s “unlimited cruelty” by deliberately aiming at civilian targets, and promised more European sanctions on Moscow.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, a drone attack killed two people and wounded 10 more in the Chernihiv region late Sunday, authorities said. Three children were among the wounded, according to the regional administration head, Viacheslav Chaus.

Agencies