RUSSIAN DRONE STRIKE HITS KYIV SCIENCE ACADEMY, KILLING ONE

A Russian drone struck the National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv, killing at least one person and wounding three others, according to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, who said the injured had been taken to hospital. Fire spread through the 19th-century building on Monday as people climbed out of first- and second-floor windows to escape the flames. The academy stands near the German embassy, the National Opera, St Volodymyr's Cathedral and several government buildings. Anatoliy Zagorodny, president of the national academy, said the strike hit while many staff were inside and that he feared colleagues might still be trapped. He said the academy had no connection to the military, describing the strike as "an attack on science" and "terrorism". Volodymyr Horbulin, the academy's first vice-president and a former senior security official, was among those injured.

The academy is a civilian scientific institution but has longstanding ties to Ukraine's defence sector, according to the report. A separate drone strike hit a nearby private medical centre on the same day, killing at least one person. The attacks form part of a wider Russian campaign over the past week involving missiles and jet-powered drones, which have struck apartment blocks, offices, warehouses and datacentres across Kyiv, killing and wounding civilians almost daily. The newer jet-powered drones fly faster than the Shahed or Geran-2 models that previously formed the core of Moscow's air campaign, making them harder to intercept.

The bombardment marks some of the most sustained attacks on the capital since the early stages of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, giving the city an increasingly frontline character, the report said. The strikes have shifted towards daytime attacks in recent days. According to the report, the drone and missile campaign is intended to weaken public resilience and damage Ukraine's economy. Monday's strikes on the academy and medical centre are likely to raise fresh concerns over the capital's ability to protect even its most heavily guarded areas.