Ukrainian emergency services were quick to respond against the wave of Russian attacks on Kyiv late Saturday night. Their quick thinking allowed to save 29 people injured, including six minor children. The attacks represented the second lethal blow in less than one day, raising alarm over civilian security in the city to a new level.
Air raid alerts sounded across the Kyiv region for roughly an hour and a half. The Ukrainian air force canceled them just after midnight on Sunday. That alarm was a warm-up act for the devastation to come as Russian troops began indiscriminately shelling civilian spaces.
In the Desnianskyi region, emergency responders quickly extinguished a fire that sparked in a nine-story apartment building. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed the rescue of thirteen people stuck on upper floors. Among them was a four-year-old boy, the youngest in the group.
“Everyone is receiving medical assistance, and some have been hospitalized,” – Kyiv’s military administration.
The scale of the attacks weren’t even the most egregious aspect of this attack, with a total of 29 people reported injured. Klitschko did not clarify if that meant buildings were hit directly or damaged as a result of projectiles hitting weapons destroyed elsewhere. What was unmistakable was the devastation.
Alongside the fire in Desnianskyi, a separate drone strike this same morning hit a multi-store residential building in the Obolonskyi district. As firefighters observed, while the flames blew out the windows from the first to the ninth floor, the entire site didn’t catch fire. This case therefore highlights the broader and growing threat to civilian structures increasingly targeted by air strikes.
Indeed, just hours after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made a high-profile appeal for more military support, the attacks started. In particular, he underlined the immediate need for Patriot missile defense systems from allies.
“We need more Patriot missile systems so that we can protect our cities from this horror,” – President Zelensky.
And that urgency is made even more pronounced by the recent wave of violence and killings. On Saturday, a pre-dawn missile attack in Ukraine killed at least five people. Just that morning, an Israeli airstrike killed three other women and injured dozens, including three other children.
To this day, Ukraine still faces the threat of massive missile attacks, sometimes hundreds of missiles and drones in one night. The need for a reliable supply of defensive weaponry is paramount as Ukrainian forces strive to safeguard their cities amidst escalating attacks.
It is still an evolving situation, and many residents do not know day-by-day when hostilities will come to an end. As emergency services remain on alert to the novel and persistent threat we are facing, they stand fast, prepared to leap into action at a moment’s notice to safeguard civilians.
