Russia hits Kyiv with huge attack while condemning US strikes on Iran

KYIV — Moscow launched another massive attack against Ukraine overnight, targeting primarily the capital’s residential districts, even as the Kremlin condemned American military strikes on Iran over the weekend.

Russia attacked Ukraine with 352 drones and 16 missiles in the early hours of Monday, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement, claiming it managed to shoot down most but not all of them.

“Another massive attack on the capital. Possibly several waves of enemy drones,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said in a post on Telegram soon after the barrage began.

At least seven people were killed and 31 wounded in the capital, Tkachenko said in a statement. A whole section of a residential building was destroyed, and five more were damaged, he said.

“After the [U.S.] strikes on Iran’s nuclear program facilities, there was a lot of uproar from Moscow — the Russian leadership performatively condemned the ‘missile-and-bomb’ actions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a statement Monday morning.

“Today, Moscow is silent after the Russian army carried out a completely cynical strike using Russian-Iranian Shahed drones and missiles against civilian infrastructure in Kyiv and other cities and communities of ours,” Zelenskyy said.

Just a day before Moscow’s latest attack on Kyiv, the Russian foreign ministry “strongly condemned” the airstrikes that the American military carried out against Iranian nuclear facilities late Saturday, calling them a gross violation of international law.

“The irresponsible decision to subject the territory of a sovereign state to missile and bomb strikes, no matter what arguments are used, is grossly violating international law, the U.N. Charter, and the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council,” the Russian ministry said in a statement Sunday. The U.S. bombing marked “a dangerous escalation … fraught with further undermining of regional and global security,” it added.  

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called the U.S. action against Iran “an unprovoked act of aggression.” Putin make the remarks during a meeting in Moscow with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Zelenskyy said that Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine damaged sites in four regions. Preliminary reports indicate that ballistic weapons from North Korea were also used, he said.

One person was killed and eight more were wounded in the wider Kyiv region, where an Iranian-Russian Shahed drone struck a hospital, officials said. Three people died and 10 were injured in the Chernihiv region, north of Kyiv, local governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

“A large number of drones and missiles were shot down by our air defenders — but not all,” Zelenskyy said. “And everyone in countries neighboring Russia, Iran, and North Korea should be thinking carefully about whether they could protect lives if this coalition of murderers persists and continues spreading their terror,” Zelenskyy added.