Russia launches major drone and missile attack on Kyiv

At least eight people were killed and more than a dozen people were injured after Russian drones and missiles hit residential buildings in Kyiv as part of a broader wave of Russian attacks overnight on the Ukrainian capital.

Several explosions were heard across parts of the city overnight into Thursday.

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali ⁠Klitschko, said on Telegram that a hotel roof was on fire on the central Shevchenko Boulevard.

Klitschko said in a later post that Kyiv also came under a ballistic missile attack.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier that intelligence reports indicated that a major assault was likely and that he was cutting short his stay in Dublin.

Ukrainian drones disrupting Russian military lines

Russia's drone and missile attacks come after Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow earlier this week.

And that Ukrainian drone assault came less than two weeks after the country hit a major oil refinery in the Moscow region in the biggest drone attack on the Russian capital since the start of the full-scale war in 2022.

Russia has targeted Ukraine's energy facilities and other critical infrastructure over the course of the war.

But Ukraine is now producing better long-range drones and has struck targets deep inside Russia.

A new analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Wednesday said that, by some estimates, over 90% of Russian casualties were from drone attacks rather than a result of human-to-human engagements.

Russia's heavy price in Ukraine war

The CSIS study said Russian forces suffered approximately 1.4 million battlefield casualties (killed, wounded or missing) between February 2022 and June 2026 and between 400,000 and 450,000 fatalities during this same period. 

Ukrainian forces have suffered somewhere between 525,000 and 625,000 casualties (killed, wounded, and missing) and between 125,000 and 150,000 fatalities between February 2022 and June 2026.

That means more than two million Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and wounded since the start of the war, a bleak milestone.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

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