Overnight Russian attacks hit a Kyiv hospital, forcing patient evacuations, and killed two people in Odesa, Ukrainian officials said. The Kyiv hospital strike was one of several incidents reported overnight, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed satellite speed limits for weaker drone defence.
A strike in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district sparked a fire at a medical facility and partially destroyed its second floor, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, as reported by Euronews. Hospital staff evacuated 30 people, and emergency crews rescued another seven. The fire was extinguished.
A separate account, relayed through a post on Reddit’s r/worldnews forum that cited the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics, says a drone smashed into the institute at 3am. It hit the second floor and an adjoining 19th-century building, and three people were reported injured. Africanews, citing a headline and short excerpt, reports one person injured at a Kyiv hospital. Euronews does not give an injury count for Kyiv, so the number remains unconfirmed.
In Odesa, a separate Russian drone attack killed two people and injured five others, according to Serhii Lysak, head of the city’s military administration, as reported by Euronews. No second source confirms these figures.
Zelenskyy said speed restrictions on SpaceX’s Starshield system meant some Ukrainian interceptor drones could not reach the speed needed to knock out enemy drones, according to the same r/worldnews post. The White House has not explained why the Starshield service was throttled, according to that source.
Russian strikes overnight also caused power outages in 12 regions, according to deputy energy minister Artem Nekrasov, as relayed by r/worldnews.
The attacks come as Russia has recently stepped up strikes on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including power plants, passenger trains and two bridges across the Dnipro river. Ukraine calls this a campaign of terror. Russia continues aerial attacks more than four years after its full-scale invasion in February 2022. US-led talks, attended by Trump’s emissaries, are continuing, and Macron has said Europe must take part.
Several key details rest on a single outlet or post, and the sources do not include Russia’s response to the Kyiv or Odesa reports. Russia’s claims of shooting down nearly 1,200 Ukrainian drones overnight, and of four killed in Volgograd, are unverified and come only from Russia, via r/worldnews.
What comes next is not yet clear. Roman Derkach, director of the Kyiv hospital, has not given a reopening timeline beyond a temporary suspension of services. Observers will also be watching for any White House explanation of the Starshield slowdown.
Sources
This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.