Russian drones struck the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and a nearby private medical centre in central Kyiv on September 28, killing at least two people and injuring several others. The daytime attacks hit civilian institutions in a heavily guarded area of the capital as Russia increased its use of faster jet-powered drones.
One drone hit the academy’s 19th-century building while staff members were inside. Fire spread through the structure and people escaped through windows on the first and second floors. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least one person was killed there and three were wounded and taken to hospital. Academy president Anatoliy Zagorodny said some colleagues might still be trapped when he spoke outside the building.
Among the injured was Volodymyr Horbulin, the academy’s first vice-president and a former senior Ukrainian security official. The academy is a civilian research institution, although it has longstanding connections with Ukraine’s defence sector. Zagorodny said staff did not understand why the institution had been hit and described the strike as an attack on science.
A separate Russian drone hit a private medical centre nearby and killed at least one person. The two strikes added to a week of missile and drone attacks that had hit apartment buildings, offices, warehouses and data centres across Kyiv. The sustained campaign has forced residents to contend with repeated alerts during working hours, when many buildings remain occupied.
Jet-powered drones pose a different interception problem from the slower Shahed or Geran-2 aircraft that have formed a large part of Russia’s long-range campaign. The newer models fly faster, reducing the time available to detect and engage them. Ukraine is trying to develop and manufacture interceptors able to counter that threat, while Russia has increasingly launched attacks during daylight.
The danger also extended beyond Kyiv. A Russian jet-powered drone struck western Ukraine near a border crossing with Poland, prompting Polish authorities to issue an alert and advise residents in the eastern Lublin region to seek shelter. Repeated attacks near crossings with Poland and Moldova have led Ukraine to consider moving some joint customs operations onto neighbouring territory.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for stronger international pressure on Russia after the strikes. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, referring to recent Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, said Ukraine would pay a price and indicated that Russian operations could intensify. The competing statements came while United States-backed efforts to negotiate an end to the war showed little visible progress.
Casualty figures in active attacks can change as rescue teams search damaged buildings. The confirmed toll available from the academy and medical-centre strikes was therefore a minimum, not a final accounting.
