Russian drone strikes Kyiv school as Moscow’s relentless aerial attacks against Ukraine continues

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian drone struck a school in Kyiv on Thursday, city officials said, as the Ukrainian capital endured another day of relentless aerial attacks.

Children and staff at the school were in shelters when the drone hit, Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said, and its warhead didn’t explode.

No casualties were reported, but the building’s brick facade showed a large hole, revealing a staircase, and burn marks alongside smashed windows.

Kyiv has felt like a city under siege in recent weeks, with repeated air raid alerts, punctuated by loud explosions from drone and missile strikes.

Police bomb squad members carry an unexploded Russian drone warhead at the site of a damaged school hit by a Russian jet-drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. REUTERS
Local children stand near the site of a Russian drone strike on a school building in a residential area of Kyiv on Thursday. SERGEY DOLZHENKO/EPA/Shutterstock
A rescuer helps students evacuate from a shelter of a damaged school hit by a Russian jet-drone strike in Kyiv on Thursday. via REUTERS

The onslaught aims to terrorize civilians, officials and analysts say, and break their will to resist four-and-a-half years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The strain is showing. Maryna Lystopad, 35, said her hair has started falling out due to the stress from escalating attacks and never knowing where the next attack will hit.

“It’s really horrible. I can’t take it anymore. I think, I think that soon we’re all going to leave. I’m really not doing well,” she told The Associated Press.

“I’m constantly anxious. I can’t relax. I keep thinking that if something happens, if something hits, one of my relatives could be killed.”

Lystopad said she recently had to travel to another part of Kyiv and had been “genuinely stressed” the whole way there.

Police officers carry an unexploded warhead from a drone out of a damaged school following a drone strike in Kyiv on Thursday. AFP via Getty Images
A firefighter works inside a damaged school hit by a Russian jet-drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv on Thursday. via REUTERS

“I kept checking, like, whether anything was flying in, where it was going, where am I supposed to go? Where am I supposed to run?” she said.

Ukraine’s air defenses are stretched

The front line in eastern and southern Ukraine hasn’t seen major shifts since last year, but the country is struggling to fend off Russia’s intensified aerial attacks on cities that include ballistic missiles and high-flying jet-powered drones.

Reflecting the urgency of Ukraine’s plight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he held a conference call Thursday with senior military and government officials in charge of protecting infrastructure, as some areas fall behind on implementing previously agreed measures.

The facade of a school stands blackened and damaged following a Russian strike on Thursday in Kyiv. Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

He said the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry will review agreements Ukraine has made with partner countries on supplying ammunition for air defenses and F-16 fighter jets, with an updated schedule of deliveries to be presented within 24 hours.

“It is important that we have additional missiles in October,” Zelensky said on social media.

In response to Russia’s attacks, Ukraine has fired its long-range drones at manufacturing plants deep inside Russia and has targeted Russia’s drone launch sites.

Zelensky said Thursday that Kyiv’s forces struck a site in Russia’s southwestern Oryol region that is used to store and launch attack drones.

To turn the tide, Ukraine needs US-made Patriot missiles that can effectively defend against ballistic missiles, but they are in short supply since the Iran war began. A plan to produce them inside Ukraine could take years to bear fruit.

Kyiv is racing to produce interceptors that can bring down fast-moving jet-propelled drones as the swift cycle of military innovation during the war continues.

Sanctions are key to stopping Russia, Ukraine says

Ukraine wants tougher sanctions imposed on Russia to prevent it from getting key high-tech components for its arsenal.

Thursday’s strike occurred amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine. AFP via Getty Images

Britain on Thursday imposed sanctions on 31 Russian individuals, entities and ships it says are linked to disinformation, attempts to avoid energy sanctions and the mistreatment of Ukrainian civilians in areas seized in the war by Russia.

Moscow, meanwhile, is pressing its advantage before Ukraine comes up with an answer to the latest challenges.

Two Russian drones hit an important bridge across the Dnipro River in Kyiv on Thursday, Klitschko said, with traffic suspended until a safety inspection could be done.

Police officers and rescuers work at the site of a damaged school hit by a Russian jet-drone strike in Kyiv on Thursday. REUTERS

Also, the Parkovyi data center in Kyiv, which provides cloud services and server hosting, was critically damaged and has stopped operating following repeated Russian strikes, the company said.

Client data has been moved to backup sites in the European Union, it said on Facebook.

Russia steps up a campaign against Ukraine’s power grid

Ukrainian officials didn’t report any energy infrastructure being hit Thursday, a day after what officials said was the biggest Russian attack on the power grid since spring.

Ukrainian rescue personnel clear rubble at a damaged school following a drone attack in Kyiv on Thursday. UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE/AFP via Getty Images

Wednesday’s barrage marked “the beginning of Russia’s strike campaign aimed at degrading Ukraine’s energy security ahead of winter … and forcing Ukraine to capitulate,” said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Russia is expected to step up attacks on the electricity supply as the weather gets colder.

It was 19 degrees Celsius (66 F) in Kyiv on Thursday, and mild temperatures were set to continue.

In a surprise development, Russia, for the first time on Wednesday, used a jet-powered drone fitted with a warhead designed to sever high-voltage pylons, said Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelensky on defense technology.

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