Russian drones hammer apartments, offices and a cultural landmark in
Ukraine, killing 7
[September 29, 2026]
By HANNA ARHIROVA and BARRY HATTON
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s round-the-clock bombardment of targets in
Ukraine killed at least seven people and wounded more than 80 others,
officials said Monday.
Moscow’s forces pounded apartment buildings, offices, gas stations, data
centers and a building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in
downtown Kyiv, among other targets.
The ceaseless Russian drone attacks on cities and towns aim to wear down
Ukraine’s resistance and cripple the Ukrainian economy.
The attacks followed a week of diplomatic efforts at the United Nations
to get traction for negotiations on ending Moscow’s invasion that began
4½ years ago.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated Monday that the chances of
making speedy headway on forging a peace settlement were bleak after
recent Ukrainian attacks, including during recent parliamentary
elections in Russia.
“Ukraine will have to pay a price for the actions that have taken place
in recent months,” Peskov told reporters. “That is happening right now.”
Russian attacks leave dead and wounded across Ukraine
Russian drone attacks on the Kyiv region killed four people and wounded
eight, officials said.
A woman was killed in a Russian strike on Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi
district on Monday afternoon, the Kyiv city military administration
said. The strike hit the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the
latest cultural landmark in the capital to be damaged.
Some staff escaped the burning building by climbing from windows down
firefighters' ladders.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the Russians were conducting a campaign
of “pure terror” on the civilian population.
“The terror goes on,” he told reporters at the site of the academy
strike. “For more than a week Russia has kept attacking Kyiv, disrupting
normal life in the city and destroying buildings.”
Russian forces also hit a pharmaceutical company and gas stations in
Kyiv.
One drone struck an office center in central Dnipro during working hours
Monday, killing three people and wounding at least 18, local authorities
said.
A Russian strike on a nine-story apartment building in the northeastern
city of Kharkiv wounded 43 people, including 11 children, Mayor Ihor
Terekhov said.
Thirty civilians were injured in Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia,
officials said, while another Russian attack damaged a multistory
apartment building in Odesa, wounding three people, according to Oleh
Kiper, head of the Odesa regional military administration.
Four people, including two teenage girls, were hurt when a Russian drone
struck a residential area in northern Ukraine’s Chernihiv region on
Sunday evening, said Viacheslav Chaus, head of the regional military
administration.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces struck two data centers in
Kyiv, as well as gas stations in the Ukrainian capital. A distribution
hub belonging to the Nova Poshta postal service was struck in the
southern city of Odesa, it said.
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Rescue workers put out a fire at the National Academy of Sciences
building damaged after a Russian drone strike in the center of Kyiv,
Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
The Russian military also hit a cargo ship in the Black Sea and
another one in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk, the ministry said.
The strikes aim to curb Ukraine’s grain exports, though they may
also create food shortages in countries that rely on Ukrainian
imports.
The Russian aerial attacks regularly hit civilian areas. Moscow
claims it targets only military-related sites.
Ukrainian army says it has advanced on the eastern front line
Battlefield positions have changed little since last year, in part
because swarms of drones severely restrict troop movements, but
Kyiv’s forces launched a recent offensive, code-named Operation
Vivaldi, on part of the 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line.
Ukraine’s Third Army Corps said Monday it had recaptured another 51
square kilometers (20 square miles) from the Russians, bringing the
total to 176 square kilometers (68 square miles) since the offensive
began several months ago.
The corps said that in order to break through Russian defenses, it
converted Soviet-era BTR-60 armored personnel carriers into kamikaze
vehicles that blew up the strongest Russian fortifications. The
operation has also used ground robots to attack Russian positions.
The claimed breakthroughs came in the Donetsk region of eastern
Ukraine, which the bigger Russian army has been trying in vain to
conquer.
Russian officials made no immediate comment on the Ukrainian claim.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said Russian troops captured
the villages of Novovodiane in the Donetsk region and Ulanove in the
northern Sumy region.
It was not possible to independently verify the claims.
Ukraine hits targets in southwestern Russia
Zelenskyy said long-range strikes on Russian soil hit two defense
plants in the Tula and Voronezh regions and oil facilities in the
Krasnodar region, all in southern and western Russia.
Ukraine's long-range drones have repeatedly targeted Russian fuel
depots and industrial plants that are a mainstay of Moscow’s economy
and war effort.
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight started fires at three
infrastructure facilities in Russia’s Krasnodar region, local
emergency officials said Monday, without identifying the locations.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 254 Ukrainian
drones overnight.
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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.
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