Russia's deadliest attack in Kyiv kills 23, draws EU, UK backlash as they summon Russian envoys

The death toll in Russia’s deadly and second-most devastating attack in Ukraine, which hit the offices of the British Council and the EU in Kyiv, has gone up to 23. Britain and the European Union have summoned Russian envoys after the airstrikes.

Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko, said that among those killed are four children after a residential building in the eastern Darnytskyi district overnight. A second blast at a different location in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district killed another person hours later, leaving buildings and offices severely damaged, including the British Council and EU offices.

Russia has rained down aerial strikes on Ukrainian cities despite US President Donald Trump’s push for a ceasefire and even as Moscow talks up the importance of ending the war launched by its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

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Ukraine’s air force said Moscow fired 629 drones and missiles. That would make it the second-largest overnight barrage of the war, according to AFP analysis of Kyiv’s data.

EU, UK summon Russian envoys

A UK government source told The Guardian that the Foreign Office has summoned the Russian envoy in Britain in response to the direct damage inflicted upon the British Council office.

“Putin’s strikes last night killed civilians, destroyed homes and damaged buildings, including the British Council and EU Delegation in Kyiv,” the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said.

Photos from the British Council showed the building with its windows and entrance blown out, surrounded by shattered glass and debris. Additional images released by the commission revealed destroyed office interiors, with collapsed ceiling panels and broken glass doors and windows.

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Meanwhile, the offices of the EU delegation in Kyiv were “severely damaged by the shock wave” from the blast, Katarína Mathernová, the EU ambassador to Ukraine, said.

Trump reacts

US President Donald Trump “was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised,” his press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

These egregious attacks threaten the peace that [Trump] is pursuing,” Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said, as he noted that the recent attacks threaten the US president’s proposals to end the war.