Russian drone strikes Kyiv's science academy, killing at least one in escalating campaign

On Monday morning in central Kyiv, a Russian drone struck the National Academy of Sciences, a 19th-century building that stands among the city's most recognizable landmarks. At least one person was killed. Three others were wounded. Flames consumed parts of the structure as staff members scrambled out of first- and second-floor windows, a scene that has become routine in a capital now under relentless bombardment.

The academy's president, Anatoliy Zagorodny, stood outside the burning building struggling to comprehend the targeting. The institution employs scientists, not soldiers. It conducts research, not military operations. "We are not connected with the military. This is an attack on science. It is terrorism," he said, his voice carrying the weight of not knowing whether colleagues remained trapped inside. The blast had struck while many staff members were at their desks.

The building's location underscores the breadth of the assault on Kyiv's civilian infrastructure. The academy sits near the German embassy, the National Opera, St Volodymyr's Cathedral, and several government offices. In the same attack, a Russian drone also hit a nearby private medical centre, killing at least one person there as well. These were not isolated incidents but part of a coordinated campaign that has hammered the capital with missiles and drones throughout the week, striking apartment blocks, office buildings, warehouses, and data centres. Civilians have been killed and wounded almost daily.

What distinguishes this phase of the air war is the technology Russia is deploying. The newer jet-powered drones fly faster and prove far harder to intercept than the older Shahed or Geran-2 models that formed the backbone of Moscow's earlier campaign. Ukraine is racing to develop and manufacture interceptors capable of stopping them, but the gap remains. Russia has also shifted its tactics, launching more attacks during daylight hours. This forces residents to spend extended periods under air raid alerts rather than venture out, grinding down public resilience and economic activity. Many Ukrainians choose to work through the alerts rather than spend hours in shelters, which means occupied buildings become targets.

Among those wounded in Monday's strike was Volodymyr Horbulin, the academy's first vice-president and a former high-ranking security official. While the academy itself is a civilian scientific institution, it has longstanding connections to Ukraine's defence sector—a detail that may or may not explain the targeting, but which complicates any simple narrative of indiscriminate strikes on purely civilian targets.

The assault extended beyond Kyiv. A Russian jet-powered drone struck western Ukraine near the Polish border crossing, prompting Warsaw to issue an air raid alert and urge residents in the eastern Lublin region to seek shelter. Ukraine has increasingly faced Russian targeting of its border crossings with Poland and Moldova, leading Kyiv to consider relocating joint customs checkpoints to the territory of neighbouring countries. "It's again a threat very close to our border," said Lt Col Jacek Goryszewski of Poland's military, speaking to the broadcaster TVN24.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Western countries to intensify pressure on Russia. "Every Russian terrorist attack is a loss of life that could have been prevented if pressure on Russia had finally become total," he wrote on social media Monday. "The world must understand that terrorists will go further if they are not stopped here, in Ukraine."

Meanwhile, the Kremlin signalled that the campaign would continue. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Ukraine would "have to pay a price" for strikes deep inside Russian territory in recent months. "That is happening right now," he said. US-brokered efforts to end the war show little sign of progress, and Russia has indicated its attacks could intensify further.