These photos and this writeup were submitted by the New Haven Independent's Kyiv correspondent. This reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Women on the Ground: Reporting from Ukraine’s Unseen Frontlines Initiative in partnership with the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.
KYIV—Sirens first sounded in Kyiv at 12:36 a.m. Thursday.
They didn’t turn off until 6:33 a.m. — following a coordinated aerial attack by Russia that has left at least 12 dead and 100 injured across Ukraine.
At the impact site of one of the missiles in the outskirts of Kyiv, on Deputatska Street roughly seven miles from the city center, the feeling of fear and anger was still palpable Thursday morning.
Broken glass was strewn across the city’s streets, and Ukrainian civil defense crews were hard at work clearing the rubble.
This marked the most significant Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital city since summer 2024, when 33 people were killed in a Russian artillery barrage that struck a hospital and various residential districts. Russia’s Thursday attack was met with widespread condemnation in the West and drew a rare rebuke from President Donald Trump. He wrote on his messaging platform, Truth Social, “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP!”
One of the defense workers — who asked to remain anonymous for fear of targeting by Russian internet trolls — told this reporter that this was one of the worst attacks he had seen. Later in the day, two more bodies would be pulled from a collapsed building.
Families were already hard at work at one of the blast sites, sweeping up debris and contacting relatives to inform them that they were safe.
Many residents were weeping, mourning the loss of their homes — and in some cases, their family members — in the third year of war. The residential complex, about four miles from the city center, was almost completely destroyed. A mother whom the Independent spoke with said that nearly all of her belongings had been destroyed in the bombing.
Myron Melnyk, a New Haven resident and Ukrainian-American who has been involved in pro-Ukraine activism since the early days of the war, told the Independent on Thursday, “Russia is doing everything it can to accelerate its aggression, to show how strong it is because the momentum is on its side. Trump has said that Ukraine can’t win this war, but what is Russia giving up in return? He is making the decisions and they are very one-sided, and along the lines of what Putin has asked for from the beginning.”
Volunteers with the World Central Kitchen and other relief organizations were active on the scene, assisting affected civilians with food and housing. According to the Ukrainian military, in total, Russian forces launched 215 missiles and drones at various targets during the coordinated attack, including 37 Kh-101 cruise missiles and 45 Shahed drones.
After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s disastrous meeting with Trump on Feb. 28, all eyes have turned towards Trump’s proposed ceasefire negotiations. Trump has pressured Zelenskyy to accept concessions that were previously off the table, including recognition of Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and removal of Western sanctions.
Putin is widely viewed to be escalating the intensity and frequency of attacks on both civilian and military targets to sway the direction of the negotiations. His goal is to negotiate from a position of strength, especially as the current frontlines will remain frozen once any proposed ceasefire goes into effect. The incentive is to put all of Russia’s resources into gaining territory before negotiations come to a close. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to meet Putin again on Friday.
Air raid sirens sounded for most of the night in Kyiv, as blasts on the outskirts of the city could be heard in the city center around 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. Kyiv’s residents have grown accustomed to frequent drone and missile attacks as the war has dragged on to its third year. While Russian attacks are usually concentrated on cities like Kherson and Kharkiv which are closer to the frontlines, occasionally, drones, which have become a staple in this battle of contemporary warfare, reach the city center.
New Haven’s residents who have come out in strong support of Ukraine after Russia’s initial invasion in 2022 have continued to stand by the Ukrainian people. Even as, after three years of war, fatigue is beginning to set in, and today’s attack was a stark reminder of the stakes of the war which has claimed the lives of 158,341 people as of March 2025.
