Russian Drone Attack Hits Kyiv School; Students Escape Without Injuries

A Russian drone tore into a school in Kyiv early today, igniting a fire that engulfed part of the building, but authorities said all pupils were already in a shelter and no one was hurt.

In the same wave of strikes, an important bridge spanning the Dnipro River was hit as Russia’s attacks on the capital intensified, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The Southern Bridge avoided major damage, he added, though metro service crossing it was suspended for a time.

At the school, emergency crews sifted through rubble beside the blackened structure, where windows had been blown out. CCTV footage verified by Reuters captured a flash and a bright fireball as the drone slammed into the third floor.

“They (Russians) spare no one,” said school director Valentyna Chorna, who said more ‌than 100 students were in the building during ⁠the strike.

“Children are our future, the future of our nation. In order to destroy a nation, of course, they need to destroy children.”

Russia has denied targeting civilians although it has repeatedly struck cities and towns across Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Rescuers work at a damaged school hit by a Russian jet-drone strike in Kyiv

Escalating strikes

The latest attacks came as Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities faced round-the-clock airstrikes in which Russia has deployed jet-powered drones — weapons Ukraine has struggled to bring down amid a shortage of air defences.

Yesterday, Russian forces launched what Ukrainian officials described as the opening of a cold-weather strike campaign aimed at Ukraine’s power grid.

The bridge strike, ⁠in particular, marked a notable escalation because such structures had lately been viewed as a “red line”, political analyst Vadym Denysenko wrote on Facebook.

The ‌Institute of Nuclear Research in Kyiv said in a statement that a drone hit it late ‌yesterday, but radiation levels remained normal.

On Monday, a Russian drone slammed into the National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv, killing one person and injuring several others.

Attack on Odesa

Russia has stepped up airstrikes even as its broader frontline gains have slowed this year.

In the Black Sea port of Odesa, regional officials said one person was wounded today when Russia struck a business centre.

A woman and her baby walk past an office building damaged by a Russian strike in Odesa, Ukraine

City administration chief Serhiy Lysak said the attack damaged infrastructure, without providing additional details.

Odesa and surrounding areas have repeatedly come under fire in attacks that have been aimed in part at squeezing Kyiv’s export revenues.

Russia, which says it strikes only military targets, said it hit a data centre in Odesa and a cargo vessel in the nearby port of Chornomorsk.

Ukraine has also increased strikes inside Russia, targeting oil refineries and major online retailers in an effort to weaken Moscow’s war effort.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, local authorities said one man was killed when a Ukrainian drone exploded in the town of Graivoron.