Russia's largest air attack on Ukraine sets fire to main government building

KYIV, September 8 ------ Russia's largest overnight air attack of the war set the main building of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv on fire and left three people dead, including an infant, whose body was pulled from the rubble, Ukrainian officials said.

"For the first time, the Government building was damaged by an enemy strike — its roof and upper floors," Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, said on the Telegram messaging app. "Rescuers are extinguishing the fire." Reuters' witnesses saw the top floor of the main building of the Ukrainian government, located in the historic Pecherskyi district, burning, with thick smoke rising into the clear blue sky just after sunrise.

Ukraine's Air Force said on Telegram that Russia launched 805 drones into Ukraine overnight and 13 missiles, with Ukrainian defense units downing 751 drones and four missiles. That was the highest number of drones Russia has used to attack the country since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Timur Tkachenko, the head of the capital's military administration, said that the infant's body was pulled from the rubble in the Darnytskyi district where a four-story apartment building was damaged. A young woman also died as a result of the attack on the district, which lies to the east of the Dnipro River, Tkachenko said. State emergency officials said that 18 people were injured in the overnight attack that sowed fires throughout the city. Moscow did not immediately comment on the attacks. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the strikes, but thousands have died in the war Russia launched with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier, Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said an elderly woman died in a bomb shelter in Darnytskyi and a pregnant woman was among those injured. State emergency officials said a fire broke out in two of the four stories of a residential building in the district that hit in the drone attack, with its structure partially destroyed.

Source: gmanetwork.com