Russia pounds Ukraine’s Kyiv after deadly strike on Academy of Sciences

Russian forces launched fresh strikes on Kyiv on Tuesday, only hours after a drone attack tore into Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences in the heart of the capital, leaving at least two people dead, according to Aljazeera English.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions rang out across the city early Tuesday, with wreckage from a missile landing in a building courtyard and a separate fire breaking out elsewhere in Kyiv. The renewed assault follows a pattern in which Moscow has begun deploying faster, jet-powered drones that fly at higher altitudes over Ukrainian cities.

The strike on the Academy of Sciences, which happened on Monday, killed two people, emergency officials said, with one victim's body pulled from the wreckage later that night. Video circulating online showed a drone diving steeply into the building before exploding, sending a plume of smoke into a clear sky. Onlookers could be seen leaning out of windows as flames tore through part of the structure.

Volodymyr Horbulin, who once led Ukraine's national security council, told public broadcaster Suspilne he was inside the academy when the strike hit. He said an assistant working nearby was killed, and that he himself suffered minor injuries. The academy sits close to several notable landmarks, including the German embassy, a cathedral and the national opera house, as well as government offices.

The academy described the attack in a statement as an act of Russian terror and barbarity directed at ordinary staff going about their work. Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, accused Moscow of cynically targeting a scientific institution in the middle of a working day, saying Russia keeps testing how far it can push without consequence, and he called on Ukraine's international partners to send more air defense support.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a medical facility in Kyiv was also struck during Monday's bombardment. He reported that Russian drone attacks nationwide killed at least nine people and wounded more than 80. In his evening address, Zelenskyy acknowledged that Ukrainian forces are still struggling to intercept the newer jet-powered drones, though he said updated interceptor systems are being tested and gradually deployed while engineers work to improve their reliability.

Zelenskyy noted that of the 120 drones Russia launched on Monday, 90 were the jet-propelled variety rather than the older propeller-driven kind, and that Ukraine managed to intercept just 57 percent of those.

Officials said Monday's strikes on Kyiv also hit a pharmaceutical company and fuel stations, while other regions saw damage to civilian buildings, businesses and communications networks. In Dnipro, a drone strike on a business center killed three people and injured 19, local authorities said. Another death was reported at a logistics facility in nearby Synelnykove, according to the regional governor. In Zaporizhzhia, an attack on infrastructure left 32 people injured.

Al Jazeera correspondent Jonah Hull, reporting from Kyiv, said Russia has spent six consecutive days striking economic targets across Ukraine, hitting data centers and telecommunications infrastructure in both daytime and nighttime attacks. He noted that Kyivstar, Ukraine's largest mobile network, was struck on Sunday along with Vodafone Ukraine, the second-largest provider, and that the government is reportedly bracing for the possibility of a nationwide communications blackout. Hull said the intensifying strikes have placed Kyiv squarely at the center of the war.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has escalated its own strikes inside Russia, targeting oil refineries and online retail businesses in an effort to squeeze the resources funding Moscow's war effort. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces hit oil facilities in Russia's Krasnodar region as well as two defense production plants on Monday. Both Moscow and Kyiv have denied intentionally targeting civilians in the conflict.