Eleven wounded, university damaged in daytime attack

Russian drones tore into central Kyiv on Wednesday morning, wounding 11 people and damaging residential and university buildings on the seventh day of nearly round-the-clock attacks that have upended daily life in the city.

Moscow’s new air campaign against the Ukrainian capital and surrounding region has killed dozens of civilians and disrupted logistics as Kyiv struggles to shoot down the jet-powered drones that have swarmed the area in waves.

Wednesday’s attack on a downtown university took place while students were in class, forcing some 160 to seek shelter, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

The mounting attacks come as Ukraine braces for a new season of Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, amid a critical shortage of U.S.-designed missile interceptors needed to down Moscow’s ballistic missiles.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russia struck power facilities in the southern Odesa region with missiles and drones, authorities said, knocking out power to more than 350,000 homes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said late on Tuesday he had ordered his forces to prepare the new campaign of “massive” strikes.

“Unfortunately, there has been far too little response from the world and its most influential leaders to this latest Russian escalation of strikes,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.

Two people were also killed and eight wounded in Russian strikes on the southeastern city of Dnipro, the regional governor said, where food warehouses and educational buildings were damaged.

TRANSPORT SNARLED, PARLIAMENT PUSHED UNDERGROUND

Loud explosions thundered through central Kyiv on Wednesday morning as air defences targeted incoming drones.

While launched in small numbers, the drones have sparked frequent air raid alerts that have snarled public transport and forced lawmakers underground.

Parts of the city’s Soviet-era metro system are suspended during alerts, making residents such as 27-year-old Maksym walk to work, scramble for taxis or rely on electric scooters.

“We need to find a solution,” he told Reuters amid the cacophony of rush-hour traffic late on Tuesday. “The sooner, the better.”

The alerts interrupted parliament twice on Wednesday, prompting lawmakers to test a new digital voting system from underneath the legislature, according to opposition deputy Yaroslav Zhelezniak, who posted footage of the platform.

Earlier this week, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said his city’s defence council had appealed to the government to ease the wartime curfew and some traffic restrictions during alerts.

UKRAINE SEEKS TO BLOCK RUSSIAN AIRSPACE

Kyiv and Moscow have traded escalating blows against logistics and economic infrastructure in recent weeks, aiming to dent each other’s war effort in the fifth year of fighting.

On Wednesday, Ukraine said it had asked the International Civil Aviation Organization to prohibit member states from using Russian airspace, clearing the way for Ukrainian attacks.

The request followed a warning by Zelenskiy late on Tuesday to airlines and insurance companies that the presence of Ukrainian drones had made Russian skies dangerous to use.

The Ukrainian leader said last week he had ordered his military to scale up its long-range drone strikes on Russia to 1,000 per day, from around 300 currently.