Russian attacks on Ukraine kill 14 civilians as Zelensky travels to UK
Russian drones and missiles killed at least 14 civilians and injured several dozen others in Ukraine in overnight attacks, local officials said Monday, with nine deaths reported in the capital, Kyiv, where an apartment building partially collapsed.The attacks came as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky began a visit to the United Kingdom, where he met privately with King Charles III.Russia fired 352 drones and decoys overnight, as well as 11 ballistic missiles and five cruise missiles, Ukraine’s air force said.Air defenses intercepted or jammed 339 drones and 15 missiles before they could reach their targets, a statement said.A Russian ballistic missile strike destroyed a high school later in the day in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing two staff, authorities said.
No children were on the premises due to the summer vacation, said Zelensky, who described the strike as “absolutely insane.”The strikes came nearly a week after a Russian attack killed 28 people in Kyiv, 23 of them in a residential building that collapsed after a direct missile hit.Russia has also hit civilian areas with long-range strikes in an apparent attempt to weaken Ukrainian morale.Russian forces have been trying to drive deeper into Ukraine as part of a summer push along the roughly 620-mile front line, though the Institute for the Study of War said progress has failed to make significant gains.“Russian forces are largely relying on poorly trained infantry to make gains in the face of Ukraine’s drone-based defense,” the Washington-based think tank said late Sunday.Zelensky said preliminary data indicated that Russian forces used North Korean missiles in the Kyiv strike.
He described Russia, North Korea and Iran, which has provided drones to Russia, as a “coalition of murderers.”Zelensky said Ukraine’s defense and new ways to pressure Russia would be the main topics in his visit to the United Kingdom.Zelensky met privately with King Charles III and stayed ...