Russia bombs the center of Kyiv in broad daylight and attacks the country's main research center

BarcelonaThe center of Kyiv filled with dense black smoke this Monday afternoon. The Russian army bombed the center of the Ukrainian capital in broad daylight, leaving at least one woman dead and 21 injured, including three children. The city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported that Russian drones attacked non-residential buildings in three districts of the city at four in the afternoon. One of the bombed buildings is the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the country's main public scientific research institution, located in one of the most central areas of the city, very close to important monuments, such as the National Opera and the German embassy.

In the images broadcast by the media, the research center building can be seen in flames, with people leaning out of the windows trying to escape. The country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reported that a rescue operation is underway looking for people who may have been trapped inside.

The director of the institution, Anatoly Zagorodny, said the explosion occurred while many staff members were inside the building. "We have no connection to the army. This is an attack on science. It is terrorism," he denounced, and said he feared that some of his colleagues were still inside the building.

The Minister of Education and Science, Andrii Butenko, has reported that one of the ministry's buildings in the capital has also suffered damage. Telegram channels have reported other attacks in the city, including a medical center located just in front of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, as reported by The Kyiv Independent. And Zelensky has also said that Russia has attacked a pharmaceutical company and gas stations in Kyiv and various civilian facilities, businesses, and communications infrastructure in other regions.

"The terror continues," denounced Klitschko to journalists at the site of the attack on the Academy of Sciences. "For more than a week, Russia has continued to attack Kyiv, which has disrupted normal life in the city and destroyed buildings," he lamented.

In Dnipro, in the center of the country, authorities have reported at least three deaths and 18 injuries in a drone attack on a company, while in Odessa, in the south, four people have been reported injured, including a minor, in a bombing of an apartment block. In Kharkiv, which has been constantly suffering from Russian attacks since the beginning of the war, another attack has left 43 people injured, including eleven children, according to the city's mayor.

"Russia will undoubtedly receive a response. And all of Ukraine's partners must see, with this terror and these attacks, that supporting Ukraine means truly supporting people's lives," Zelensky wrote on social media. "The world must understand that the terrorists will continue if they are not stopped here, in Ukraine. And these brutal attacks must not be ignored," he added, and reiterated that a global response is needed: "We are counting on the strength of Europe, the United States, and our other partners who can help protect lives."

Russia's bombing of Kyiv has intensified in recent weeks, at a time when the Ukrainian army is also not easing its air attacks on Russian territory, especially on oil refineries, in one of the most violent periods in the war that has been dragging on for four and a half years. The Ukrainian capital also suffered a bombing this Sunday evening, at a wholesale food market on the outskirts of the city, in which two people died and four more were injured.

Ukrainians are heading towards a winter that is expected to be very complicated if the continuous attacks by the Russian army are maintained. Ukraine suffers from a lack of air defenses, which has considerably reduced its army's capabilities to intercept Russian projectiles.

Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said today – before the massive afternoon attack – that Ukraine "must pay the price" for the actions of the last few months. "This is what is happening," he said, and summarized that Russia attacks "the targets it considers appropriate."

The Russian Ministry of Defence has reported on this afternoon's attacks and claimed that the targets were fuel and telecommunications infrastructure in Kyiv and three ships that were allegedly carrying supplies for the Ukrainian army in Odesa.

Poland, on alert

Amidst this massive attack by Russia against Ukraine, the Polish air forces have reported that military aircraft have taken off into their airspace. Local residents of Lublin, in eastern Poland, have reported hearing civil defense alert sirens, and the Polish government's security center has also issued alerts via message to the city's inhabitants warning that there was a risk of an air attack and that they had to find a safe place to take refuge.

Later, the Polish authorities reported that a Russian drone crashed near the Dorohusk-Jagodzin border crossing point, on the Ukrainian side. Inhabitants of Poland's border areas are getting used to receiving, more and more frequently, alerts that interrupt their daily lives, whether due to the proximity of the war against Ukraine or the habitual "hybrid attacks" from Moscow.