Russian drones crash into central Kyiv in seventh day of strikes

Russian drones tore into central Kyiv on Wednesday morning, wounding nine people and damaging residential and university buildings on the seventh day of ‌nearly round-the-clock attacks that have upended daily life in the city. Moscow's new air campaign against the Ukrainian capital and surrounding region has killed dozens of civilians and disrupted logistics as Kyiv struggles to shoot down the jet-powered drones that have swarmed the area in waves.

Wednesday's attack on a ‌downtown university took place while students were in class, forcing some 160 to seek shelter, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The mounting attacks come ‌as Ukraine braces for a new season of Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, amid a critical shortage of U.S.-designed missile interceptors needed to down Moscow's ballistic missiles.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russia struck power facilities in the southern Odesa region with missiles and drones, authorities said, knocking out power to more than 350,000 homes. Russian President Vladimir Putin ⁠said late ​on Tuesday he had ordered his ⁠forces to prepare the new campaign of "massive" strikes.

"Unfortunately, there has been far too little response from the world and its most influential leaders to this latest Russian escalation ⁠of strikes," Zelenskiy wrote on X. Two people were also killed and eight wounded in Russian strikes on the southeastern city of Dnipro, the regional governor said, ​where food warehouses and educational buildings were damaged.

TRANSPORTATION SNARLED, PARLIAMENT PUSHED UNDERGROUND Loud explosions thundered through central Kyiv on Wednesday morning as ⁠air defences targeted incoming drones.

While launched in small numbers, the drones have sparked frequent air-raid alerts that have snarled public transportation and forced lawmakers underground. Parts of the city's ⁠Soviet-era ​metro system are suspended during alerts, making residents such as 27-year-old Maksym walk, scramble for taxis or rely on electric scooters to get to work.

"We need to find a solution," he told Reuters amid the cacophony of morning traffic. "The sooner, the better." The alerts ⁠interrupted parliament twice on Wednesday, prompting lawmakers to test a new digital voting system from underneath the legislature, according to opposition deputy Yaroslav ⁠Zhelezniak, who posted footage of the ⁠platform.

Earlier this week, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said his city's defence council had appealed to the government to ease the wartime curfew and other traffic restrictions during alerts. (Additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Kateryna ‌Besedina and Vladyslav Smilianets, ‌and Anna Pruchnicka in Gdansk; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Christopher ​Cushing, Christian Schmollinger and Alison Williams)