A Russian drone struck the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in central Kyiv on Monday afternoon, killing a woman and setting off a large fire in the historic building.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one woman was killed and three people were wounded in the strike on the academy and taken to hospital. Across the capital, Klitschko said a total of 19 people were injured in Monday's attacks, six of whom were hospitalized.
Footage from the scene showed thick black smoke and flames engulfing part of the building, as occupants leaned out of windows for air. Reuters photographers captured a man standing on a window ledge surrounded by smoke, and another escaping down a rescue ladder. Firefighters doused the building as rubble lay strewn across its courtyard.
"A rescue operation is underway: crews are putting out the fire and searching for people who may have been trapped inside," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The academy sits in the heart of Kyiv, an area usually well protected from Russian attacks, close to the German embassy, St. Volodymyr's Cathedral, the national opera house and government buildings. The Ukrainian air force had issued an alert earlier warning of drones moving toward the city. In recent weeks, Russia has begun striking Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with faster, high-flying jet drones.
The attack was part of a wider wave of Russian strikes on Monday that killed at least seven people and wounded more than 50 across Ukraine, according to officials. In Dnipro, a strike on an office building killed three people. In Kharkiv, a Russian strike on a nine-story apartment building wounded 43 people, including 11 children, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. A pharmaceutical company, petrol stations and a medical facility were also hit in Kyiv, according to Zelensky.
The strikes came days after intensive diplomacy on the war at the UN General Assembly in New York.
