Ukraine cabinet building hit in largest Russian strike of war, Zelenskyy says
LONDON -- Ukraine's cabinet building in Kyiv was among the targets of Russia's largest drone and missile attack of the war overnight into Sunday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine's air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 810 drones and 13 missiles into the country in the latest barrage, of which 747 drones and four missiles were shot down. Nine missiles and 54 drones impacted across 33 locations, the air force said.
The total of 823 munitions made the attack Russia's largest to date, surpassing the 741 munitions reported by the air force on July 9.
At least two people were killed in the attack on Kyiv, local officials said. Elsewhere, impacts were reported in Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipro, Kremenchuk and Odesa regions.
At least eight civilians were killed and 59 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine, local officials said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram that the attack damaged the "roof and upper floors" of the cabinet building located in the historic Pecherskyi district in the center of the city, which is home to many government buildings.
"Rescuers are extinguishing the fire," Svyrydenko wrote. "I thank them for their work. We will restore the buildings. But lost lives cannot be returned. The enemy terrorizes and kills our people across the country every day."
Both the prime minister and president urged an immediate response from the international community and more military assistance for Kyiv.
"Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have started long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war," Zelenskyy wrote.
"It has been repeatedly stated in Washington that there will be sanctions for refusal to talk. We must implement everything agreed upon in Paris," the president added, referring to last week's meeting with European leaders and virtual talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in the French capital.
Zelenskyy said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, who in a post to X said Moscow was "locking itself ever deeper into the logic of war and terror."
The Ukrainian president said in a post to Telegram, "Together with France, we are preparing new measures to strengthen our defense."
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was "appalled" by the Russian strike.
"These cowardly strikes show that Putin believes he can act with impunity," Starmer said in a statement. "He is not serious about peace."
The overnight barrage prompted the scrambling of NATO fighter jets in Poland, the country's Armed Forces Operational Command wrote on X.
"Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached a state of maximum readiness," the command said. The alert last for around three hours.
Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement posted to Telegram that its "massive strike with high-precision weapons and strike unmanned aerial vehicles" targeted "facilities for the production, assembly, repair, storage and launch of unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as military air bases."
The Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 69 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Debris from one Russian drone fell on the territory of the Ilsky Oil Refinery in the Krasnodar region, local officials said, causing a fire at one of the technological installations which was quickly extinguished with no casualties.
Voronezh regional Gov. Governor Alexander Gusev said one farm worker was seriously injured when a downed drone crashed. Private homes, farm buildings and power lines were damaged, Gusev said.
In the border region of Belgorod, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said that one person was injured by a drone attack that also damaged an administrative building.
ABC News' Fidel Pavlenko, Natalia Popova, Anna Sergeeva and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
