KYIV: Russia pummelled Kyiv with the largest drone attack of the war, killing one person, injuring at least 23 and damaging buildings across the capital hours after US President Trump spoke to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, officials said on Friday.Air raid sirens, the whine of kamikaze drones and booming detonations reverberated from early evening until dawn as Russia launched what Ukraine’s Air Force said was a total of 539 drones and 11 missiles.Families huddled in underground metro stations for shelter and acrid smoke hung over the city centre. Kyiv’s military administration chief said on Friday afternoon a body had been found in the wreckage of one of the strike sites.Outside a high-rise apartment block damaged by a drone, residents stood around surveying the scene as the clean-up job began. Some cried. Others looked on silently.“I woke up to the sound of explosions, first the Shahed drones started buzzing, and then the explosions began,” said 40-year-old resident Maria Hilchenko. “Then people started screaming outside. The explosions from the Shaheds kept coming.” Shahed drones are an Iranian design, a variant of which is now manufactured in Russia. President Zelensky called the attack “deliberately massive and cynical”, noting the first sirens blared as news came in of Putin and Trump’s call.Later on Friday Zelensky spoke to Trump and the pair agreed to work on increasing Kyiv’s capability to “defend the sky”. He added they discussed joint defence production, as well as joint purchases and investments. The US has paused some deliveries of missiles amid concerns about low stockpiles. US outlet Axios reported, citing unnamed sources, that the call lasted around 40 min, and that Trump told Zelensky he would check what US weapons due to be sent to Ukraine, if any, had been put on hold. Kyiv officials said the attack damaged about 40 apartment blocks, passenger railway infrastructure, five schools and kindergartens, cafes and many cars in six of Kyiv’s 10 districts. Poland said the consular section of its embassy was damaged in central Kyiv, adding that staff were unharmed. Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said a Chinese component had been found in one of the Shahed drones attacking Kyiv. Russian airstrikes on Kyiv have intensified in recent weeks. Russia’s defence ministry said drone factories, a military airfield and an oil refinery were among targets it struck in Kyiv with what it called high-precision weapons. Ukraine did not give details.Trump said that the call with Putin on Thursday resulted in no progress at all on efforts to end the war, and the Kremlin reiterated that Moscow would keep pushing to solve the conflict’s “root causes”. The decision by Washington to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine prompted warnings by Kyiv that the move would weaken its ability to defend against intensifying airstrikes. Germany said it is in talks on buying Patriot air defence systems to bridge the gap. (This is a Reuters story)
