A Russian drone hit the headquarters of Ukraine’s SBU security service in Kyiv yesterday, one of the most high-profile targets struck during the war as Russia intensified its campaign of air strikes against Ukraine.
Ukraine said the attack was a major escalation of the war and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed to retaliate, as Moscow’s air strikes on the Ukrainian capital extended into a 10th day.
Heavy black smoke rose in Kyiv’s historic city centre following the attack, which the city’s mayor said had wounded at least 12 people.
During more than four-and-a-half years of war with Russia, Ukrainian government buildings have rarely been damaged in drone and missile strikes.
“The drone was aimed directly at the office of the Head of the Security Service in that building,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.
He said that he ordered “an appropriate, tangible response and, where possible, one that mirrors this strike.”
“(SBU) Head Oleksandr Poklad reported on preparations for our active response to the Russian strikes,” Zelenskiy said, posting a picture of their meeting in his office in Kyiv.
“The geography of our response has been determined.”
The SBU is vital to Ukraine’s war efforts as it carries out high-impact, deep strikes inside Russia designed to damage Moscow’s war machine and its energy infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Numerous ambulances and emergency services were at the scene of yesterday’s strike in the historic part of the city close to the Saint Sophia Cathedral, a Unesco World Heritage site.
“Four hundred metres (yards) from our office. The walls shook. The blast wave reached us very clearly,” Iryna Borovets, a deputy director at the European Policy Institute, said in a post on X.
“It is a strike both against an institution that defends the country and against the ordinary urban space, and the protected historical heart of the city – that we are still trying to preserve.”
The blast smashed windows at one of the buildings, which is part of the historic St Sophia complex, officials said.
The owner of a popular bakery, Zavertailo, said on the Telegram app that their building, located opposite the SBU building, was also damaged in the attack. He posted pictures of shattered glass covering tables and the floor.
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