Russia has escalated its aerial bombardment of Ukraine, impacting deeper and deadlier than it had until then. A Russian Iskander cruise missile hit Kyiv’s cabinet of ministers building over the weekend. The missile did not fully explode, but it cleared through three floors of the building, causing serious damage and giving an impression in Kyiv of how little air defence capacity Ukraine has. The escalation comes as President Vladimir Putin reacts to a peace push from Donald Trump with more attacks. In the eastern Donbas, a Russian glide bomb killed upwards of 20 civilians in the village of Yarova as they lined up for their pensions. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike as “savage” and called for stricter sanctions on Russia and increased air defence systems from allies.
Ukrainian officials have said that while the proportion of Western parts of Russian missiles has declined due to sanctions, Russia is making up the difference with domestic production methods and cooperation with Chinese producers, making drones much more difficult to intercept. Experts have indicated that Russia’s current tactics of massive drone swarms to overwhelm air defence systems combined with follow-up strikes from precise missiles are exhausting the defence capacity of Ukraine and moving the attacks further into the capital.
The fear for civilians is starting to ramp up. “It’s scary they’re hitting the centre now,” said one Kyiv resident. “Before, the drones only flew over me. Now they hit me.”
