The State Emergency Service of Ukraine updated the death toll from a Russian attack on Kyiv to 30 as rescue operations continued Friday. Photo via State Emergency Services of Ukraine/UPI | License Photo
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine updated the death toll from a Russian attack on Kyiv to 30 as rescue operations continued Friday.
The Ukrainian Air Force said a total 25 ballistic missiles and 12 drones got past air defenses during the approximately 12-hour attack on Thursday, and Kyiv authorities said they struck some 25 locations in the city, many of them residential areas.
The attacks claimed the lives of at least 30 people, with dozens of others injured, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said Friday.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the updated number on social media.
“First responders have already managed to clear a significant part of the rubble, but 10 people are still missing,” he wrote. “The search operation will continue for as long as needed.”
More than 90% of the cruise missiles and 90% of Shahed-type strike drones launched at Kyiv during the barrage were intercepted, CNN quoted the Ukrainian Defense Ministry as saying Friday.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko declared Friday to be a day of mourning, as rescue operations continued to search for survivors.
The Defense Ministry said several of the missiles launched during the attack were ballistic, traveling at speeds too high to be intercepted by anything other than Patriot missiles.
The ministry said contracts are in place to obtain more Patriot missiles in the future, but it put out an urgent call to nearly 40 countries to provide missiles from existing stocks.
The Russian Ministry of Defense released a statement Thursday saying that the attack on Kyiv was a retaliation targeting “military-industrial facilities and fuel and energy complex sites.”
Tymur Tkachenko, chief of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said residential buildings were heavily targeted in the attack.
“There were very significant direct hits on residential buildings, where, unfortunately, rescuers are pulling people from the rubble, including those killed,” he said, accusing Russia of “very deliberately striking residential buildings.”
“This night has once again shown their terrorist nature.”
