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Russian forces hit Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv on Monday as Moscow launched another wave of deadly strikes across the country that killed at least seven people and wounded dozens more, according to officials.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Emergency Service told a Euronews reporter on the ground that there was a direct hit by a jet-powered [drone] on the building at around 1:30 pm local time, with no military targets in the vicinity.
Another attempted attack on the area was intercepted by Ukrainian air defences high above the site as authorities carried out rescue operations.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (DSNS) said at least one person was killed and six others were injured in the attack.
The building was engulfed in flames and smoke and surrounded by rubble as firefighters worked at the scene.
“By destroying educational and scientific infrastructure, Russia is attempting to intimidate children, parents, educators, and scientists, and to disrupt the educational process and the normal operations of our institutions,” Andrii Butenko, Ukraine’s Minister of Education and Science said in a social media post.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital on Monday had left 19 people, including three children, injured.
Three people, including an Azerbaijani national, were also killed in strikes on the wider Kyiv Oblast overnight, with a further eight sustaining injuries, authorities announced.
Elsewhere, three people were killed and 12 were wounded in a drone attack on Dnipro in eastern Ukraine. The DSNS reported that the strike had caused a fire at an administrative building and that rescuers had evacuated people trapped on its upper floors.
Ukrainian forces strike Russian ‘defence plants’
Earlier on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian forces had targeted two “defence plants” in Russia’s Tula and Voronezh regions on Sunday night.
He said units from Ukraine’s Security Service had also carried out strikes on Russian oil facilities in the Krasnodar region over the past day.
“Sanctions were also launched against facilities that the Russians use for drone terror against Ukraine in the Kaluga and Oryol regions,” he wrote in a post on social media, adding: “In the Bryansk region, our forces worked directly against the occupying contingent. A target was also hit in the Black Sea”.
It comes as Ukrainians prepare for another expected winter onslaught from Russian forces against Ukraine’s energy network as the Kremlin once again looks to break the country’s resistance.