Published on: Sept 08, 2025 07:26 am IST
Ukrainian PM Yulia Svyrydenko said Kyiv’s main government building was hit for the first time in the war, a symbolic blow to a heavily defended area.
Russia carried out its biggest air strike of the war on Ukraine overnight, setting ablaze the main government building in central Kyiv and killing at least four people, including an infant.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the barrage of drones and missiles left four people dead and caused widespread damage across the north, south and east of the country, striking the cities of Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih and Odesa, as well as the Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
“Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have already begun long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” Zelensky said in a post on X, renewing his appeal to allies to bolster Ukraine’s air defences.
Shortly after sunrise, thick smoke rose into the clear blue sky from the burning top floor of the main government building in Kyiv’s historic Pecherskyi district, Reuters witnesses reported.
Here’s what we know so far about the strike:
- Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the strike marked the first time in the war that Kyiv’s main government building had been hit, calling it a symbolic blow to one of the city’s most heavily defended areas.
- Russia launched 805 drones and 13 missiles against Ukraine overnight, while Ukrainian air defence units intercepted 751 drones and four missiles, the air force said. This marked the largest drone assault Russia has carried out since its full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X that the Russian strike on Kyiv’s government building showed “again that the continued delaying of a strong reaction against Putin and the attempts to appease him made no sense.”
- Russia’s defence ministry said it carried out strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and transport infrastructure, according to the TASS news agency. Both sides have denied targeting civilians.
- US President Donald Trump called the strike “a horrible waste of humanity” but said he remained optimistic about resolving the conflict. “I’m not happy. I’m not happy about the whole situation… but I believe we’re going to get it settled,” he said.
- Ukraine’s military said it struck the Druzhba oil pipeline in Russia’s Bryansk region overnight on Sunday, causing “comprehensive fire damage.”
- The interior ministry of Ukraine reported that over 20 people were injured in the capital, while air alerts in Kyiv and the surrounding region continued for more than 11 hours.
- Dozens of explosions also rattled the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, cutting power for some residents and damaging a bridge over the Dnipro River, Mayor Vitalii Maletskyi said on Telegram.
- Trump said on Sunday that he is ready to move to a second phase of sanctions against Russia, marking his closest indication yet that he may escalate measures against Moscow or its oil buyers over the war in Ukraine.
- Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said rescuers recovered an infant’s body from the rubble in the Darnytskyi district, where a four-storey apartment building was damaged. A young woman was also killed in the attack, which struck the district east of the Dnipro River.
With inputs from Reuters
