Rescue workers look at a residential house damaged in a Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine. (AP Photo)
Russian strikes pummeled Ukraine on Sept. 29 after hitting the National Academy of Sciences in the historic heart of Kiev, in the latest deadly attack on the Ukrainian capital.
Kiev has increasingly faced Russian drones and missiles as Europe’s worst conflict since World War II grinds through its fifth year.
The capital again came under fire after an air force alert warning of approaching drones.
Video footage shared online appeared to show a high-speed drone smashing into the National Academy of Sciences at a sharp angle, exploding and sending acrid smoke into the blue sky above.
People were seen leaning out of windows as bright orange flames engulfed part of the building.
Volodymyr Gorbulin, Ukraine’s former national security and defense council secretary, told state broadcaster Suspilne that he was at work at the academy at the time and was slightly wounded.
But he said his assistant, who was near the building, was killed.
The National Academy of Sciences is close to the German embassy, a cathedral, the national opera and government buildings.
Kiev cultural sites, government buildings and schools have all been targeted before, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The academy called the attack “Russian terror” and “barbarity,” targeting “peaceful people who were simply at their workplaces. Ukrainian science, education and culture.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky said a separate strike in the capital hit a medical facility.
Elsewhere, Russian strikes killed four and wounded at least 19 at a business center in the central city of Dnipro, while authorities reported an unspecified number of fatalities in a strike on a residential area in eastern Kharkiv.
