Russian drone hits Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, two dead

At about 1:30 p.m. on Monday, September 28, a Russian drone hit the Presidium building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the historic center of Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that two people were killed in the day’s attacks on Kyiv and 26 were injured, including three children. Eight of the wounded were hospitalized and one person is in serious condition. The Dobrobut medical center was hit as well, so the strike on the Academy is part of a run of attacks on civilian infrastructure that Kyiv has now endured for six days.

What happened at the Academy?

According to emergency services, two people died in the strike on the Academy, and the body of one was pulled from the rubble only in the evening. Al Jazeera carries video showing a fast drone hitting the building at a steep angle and exploding, with flames and smoke pouring from the windows. The portal Liga reports that two academicians were killed. Other sources do not confirm that claim, so what can be said for now is this: two victims and a fire in part of the building.

Volodymyr Horbulin, a former secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told the public broadcaster Suspilne that he was at work in the Academy when it was hit. His aide, who was standing near the building, was killed, and he was lightly injured. The Academy called the attack “Russian terror” and “barbarism” aimed at “peaceful people who were at their workplaces”.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Moscow of cynicism for targeting a scientific institution in the middle of a working day and called on allies to send more air defense.

“Russia is deliberately pushing the boundaries of what it believes the world will tolerate,” Sybiha said in a statement carried by Al Jazeera.

Dobrobut closed, a pharmaceutical plant hit

The Dobrobut medical center on Antonovycha Street was hit in the same attack. Seven people were injured, six of them employees. According to Liga, the upper floors of the seven-story building were damaged and fire spread through outpatient rooms on the lower floors. The blast wave broke windows from the first to the third floor on the courtyard side, and medical equipment was damaged. The center is closed for the next few days, while the network’s other centers are open.

In a Facebook statement, the Dobrobut network said:

“All employees and visitors of the medical center are alive. The injured received medical care, and several people were taken to the emergency departments of other medical centers.”

The Darnitsa pharmaceutical plant and gas stations in Kyiv were hit the same day. Klitschko reported new strikes until late in the evening: a non-residential building in the Obolon district was hit several times, vehicles caught fire in the Solomianskyi district when a drone fell into the yard of a residential building, and a three-story business center was hit in the Sviatoshynskyi district.

The numbers differ, and the attack continued overnight

Sources disagree on how many drones were launched on Monday. Kyiv Post, citing the Ukrainian Air Force, reports 124 drones, 86 of them jet-powered, and 86 targets shot down or jammed. Al Jazeera carries a statement by President Volodymyr Zelensky that 90 of 120 drones were jet-powered and that the interception rate for that type is 57 percent. Zelensky also said that at least nine people were killed in Russian drone attacks across the country and more than 80 were wounded.

Outside Kyiv, according to officials cited by Al Jazeera, three people were killed and 19 wounded in an attack on a business center in Dnipro. In Synelnykove, one man was killed in a logistics office, and in Zaporizhzhia 32 people were wounded in an attack on infrastructure.

A new attack on Kyiv began at about 1:20 a.m. on Tuesday, with warnings of ballistic missiles launched from the Kursk region. Klitschko reported that missile debris fell into the yard of a building in the Solomianskyi district, that an administrative building of an infrastructure facility and an educational institution were hit, and that a three-story non-residential building burned in the Pechersk district. According to the morning report from the State Emergency Service, a six-story building was hit in the Holosiivskyi district: one person was injured and ten were evacuated.

The Air Force gives figures for the whole attack on Ukraine, from 6 p.m. Monday to 8 a.m. Tuesday: one Zircon or Onyx missile, two Iskander-M or S-400 ballistic missiles and 152 Shahed-type drones, 82 of them jet-powered. By 8 a.m., 109 targets had been shot down or jammed.

Reactions from European officials

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on X.

“Today, science was Russia’s target. My thoughts are with the heroes searching for people trapped in the building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,” she wrote.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said on the same platform that a clinic and the Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv had been hit. “Deliberately targeting civilians and carrying out terrorist attacks on the civilian population is reprehensible and a violation of international law,” he wrote. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said: “I firmly condemn the continuation of Russian attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine, in clear violation of international humanitarian law.”

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide singled out the Academy: “I am appalled by the latest Russian attacks across Ukraine, including the attack on the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv. Scientists and staff should be able to work safely.” The French Embassy in Ukraine wrote that “schools, Kyiv’s universities, and now the Academy of Sciences, are hit in broad daylight, in flames, a few steps from the Opera”.

Why the faster drones are a problem

Al Jazeera correspondent Jonah Hull, reporting from Kyiv, said Russia is hitting economic targets across Ukraine “in a series of strikes that have lasted six days now”, by day and by night. According to him, data centers and communications infrastructure are increasingly targeted: on Sunday Kyivstar, the country’s largest mobile operator, and Vodafone Ukraine were hit, and authorities are preparing for the worst case, a complete communications blackout.

In his evening address, Zelensky admitted that Ukraine still has trouble defending against the faster Russian jet-powered drones.

“We are actively testing new interceptors. Some combat units are already using them, but, of course, some details need to be refined to achieve sufficient effectiveness and scale. We are speeding up the development teams,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine has stepped up its own attacks on Russia at the same time. On Monday Zelensky said that Russian oil facilities in the Krasnodar region and two defense factories were hit. Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians. A day earlier we reported on a guided bomb strike on Kharkiv that injured 22 people.