Russian attack on Kyiv injures at least 10, Zelenskyy expects US envoys soon

At least 10 people have been injured in a Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he expects talks with United States envoys in the coming days.

Kyiv’s military administration said on Thursday that 10 people, including a child, had been injured in the evening attack, while Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the injured included six medical personnel.

The military administration initially said one person had died in the attack, but later said the report had proved untrue.

In a message on Telegram, Klitschko said that the ninth floor of a high-rise residence had been damaged, adding that 15 people had been evacuated from the building in a district just outside the city centre.

Video published on unofficial Telegram channels showed a large fireball rising skywards. Unofficial channels said the building had been struck by a jet-powered drone.

Local media said new explosions later jolted the city. An air raid alert remained in effect more than two hours after it was imposed.

Klitschko said six people had been wounded in earlier strikes on the capital, which has been subject to more than a week of sustained attacks.

Ukraine’s state oil and gas company Naftogaz announced that Russia also attacked its production sites. In a statement, it said the attack caused significant damage to equipment, though it did not give a location.

Meanwhile, one person was killed and five others injured after a Ukrainian drone struck a bus in Horlivka in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, reported the Interfax news agency.

The bus was hit in “a targeted drone attack”, Interfax said, citing Ivan Prikhodko, the city’s Russian-installed mayor.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the assertion. Ukraine and Russia both deny targeting civilians.

One person was killed and four others injured in a separate drone attack on a passenger bus in Russia’s Belgorod region, local authorities reported.

Meetings in Moscow and Kyiv

The attacks came as Zelenskyy said he hoped to host US President Donald Trump’s envoys in Kyiv in the coming days to resume efforts to end the Russian invasion.

Diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s four-and-a-half-year war on Ukraine have stalled in recent months as the US has shifted its focus towards its war in the Middle East.

“We expect to see the envoys of the president of America here in Kyiv. We have confirmation from them,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

“They will have meetings in Moscow and in Kyiv. We are counting on a meeting in the coming days,” he added.

Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, have been involved in shuttle diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine.

While they have travelled to Moscow multiple times, they have never been to Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said that “tentative dates have been set” for the envoys’ first visit to the Ukrainian capital.

In July, Zelenskyy said he had spoken with Witkoff and Kushner “to reinvigorate diplomacy and bring peace closer”.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has turned into Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, killing thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of troops since 2022.