KYIV, Ukraine — Russia pounded Ukraine's capital with another major missile and drone attack overnight into Thursday, killing at least two people and causing fires across Kyiv a day after the heaviest drone attack so far in the more than three-year war, Ukrainian officials said.
In another tense and sleepless night for Kyiv residents, with many of them dashing in the dark with children and blankets to the protection of subway stations, at least 19 people were wounded, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv Regional Administration.
The night was punctuated with the chilling whine of approaching drones that slammed into residential areas, exploded and sent balls of orange flames into the dark during the 10-hour barrage. Russia fired 397 Shahed and decoy drones as well as cruise and ballistic missiles at Kyiv and five other regions, authorities said.
''This is a clear escalation of Russian terror: hundreds of Shahed drones every night, constant missile strikes, massive attacks on Ukrainian cities,'' President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.
Two rounds of direct peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations have yielded no progress on stopping the fighting. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday there is no date for a possible third round of negotiations.
Russia aims to sap Ukrainian morale
Russia has recently sought to overwhelm Ukraine's air defenses with major attacks that include increasing numbers of decoy drones. The previous night, it fired more than 700 attack and decoy drones, topping previous nightly barrages for the third time in two weeks.
''The continued increase in the size of strike packages is likely intended to support Russian efforts to degrade Ukrainian morale in the face of constant Russian aggression,'' the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Wednesday.