Kyiv has been bombarded with drones shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to respond to a massive Ukrainian attack in Russia.
Ukraine’s Air Force reported on Telegram that Russia had launched ballistic missiles and drones into the war-torn country early on Friday, per CNN.
A Telegram post from the air force warned, “Several Tu-95MS strategic bombers are in the air. They allegedly launched cruise missiles!”
CNN reported that Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv City Military Administration, said that there were reports of fires in buildings across Kyiv, and that a high-rise in the Solomyansky district was damaged.
Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, reported fires in the Holosiivskyi and Darnytskyi districts as well, CNN reported.
Klitschko said on Telegram that there were three victims from the bombardment in Kyiv.
“Doctors hospitalized two of them, and one was treated on the spot,” the mayor said.
The Kyiv City Military Administration reported on Telegram that debris was falling on a playground in the Darnytskyi district and a fire at a “civil infrastructure facility” in the Holosiivskyi district.
The attacks came shortly after President Donald Trump said Putin told him over the phone that he would retaliate against Ukraine for its large-scale bombardment over the weekend.
Last Sunday, Ukraine launched an operation that it said used over 100 smuggled drones to hit 41 Russian military aircraft.
Ukraine also blew up a section of the Kerch Bridge that connects Russia with the annexed Crimean Peninsula on Tuesday.
In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump said he and Putin “discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides” during a phone call that lasted over an hour.
“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump said.
It’s been over three years since Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While Trump had promised to stop the war “within 24 hours” of taking office, that feat proved to be far more difficult.
Trump has tried to get Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire, but so far his efforts have not yielded any real action to end the war.
The president, who has praised Putin in the past, seemed to have gotten frustrated by the Russian leader for not doing more to bring peace to the warring nations, writing on Truth Social last month, “What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”
