'Mom, I want to live': Eyewitnesses describe night of terror in bombarded Kyiv
Six people died and 35 were injured, including two children and a pregnant woman, in a Russian missile and drone assault on Kyiv overnight into Friday; rescue operations continue amid accounts from residents who escaped collapsing high-rises, city military governor Tymur Tkachenko said.
Among the injured Kyiv residents are children aged 7 and 10. At least 15 people have been hospitalized, including a pregnant woman. The wounded are receiving care, and search-and-rescue efforts are ongoing.
In the Desnianskyi district, rescuers are combing the site where a Russian drone struck a nine-story building. The State Emergency Service said the impact — preliminarily from a drone on the seventh floor — caused a vertical shaft to collapse, destroying ceilings from the eighth to fourth floors. By 10:30 a.m., the initial fire was extinguished, but another blaze reignited during debris clearance.
Rescuers believe people may still be trapped under the rubble, though the number is unknown. They will continue until all fragments are cleared.
Near the building, one man told an hromadske correspondent that his 62-year-old sister lived on the eighth floor. Her husband had been staying overnight at the man's private home. They recognized the high-rise from social media photos and rushed over immediately. On site, they learned she had died in the strike.
Among the dead is an elderly couple. Neighbors said they were sleeping when a concrete slab crashed onto their bed. Their son Andriy told Suspilne Kyiv that his parents had spent the summer in the village and returned to Kyiv just five days earlier, when the heating season began.
Another fatality is an 87-year-old woman killed by a falling slab.
In another section of the building, on the seventh floor, a mother and her three children were trapped. Rescuers spent three hours unable to unblock the door. They were eventually saved using a fire ladder.
A mother of four children recounted how her kids fled outside half-naked and terrified, screaming to her: "Mom, I want to live."
Another woman sat under the building, waiting for news of her friend who lives in the same section. She remains uncertain about her fate as rescuers complete searches.
In a 16-story building on Balzac Street in the Desnianskyi district, a Shahed drone hit the seventh floor. One resident reported that the fire spread to nearby apartments, including her own. She escaped independently despite blocked doors; her kitchen burned.
Overall, Kyiv has reported damage to dozens of high-rises, the Azerbaijani embassy and sections of heating networks. Russian forces also struck five districts in the broader Kyiv Oblast, injuring six people, including a 7-year-old child.