Drone strike kills one at Kyiv science academy as citywide injuries rise

A Russian drone struck a National Academy of Sciences building in central Kyiv on Monday, killing one woman and injuring people inside as flames drove staff to escape through windows. Officials attributed three hospitalized injuries to the building in an afternoon update, while a higher injury count reported later covered attacks across the capital.

The strike hit a building on Volodymyrska Street in the Shevchenkivskyi district on 28 September, according to hromadske. Kyiv’s city administration placed the impact at about 1:35 p.m. local time and later identified the building as belonging to the academy. The attack came during the working day, when employees were inside.

Casualty figures changed as rescuers worked

At 3:11 p.m. local time, the city administration’s running account attributed four people affected at the central building to Mayor Vitali Klitschko: one person dead and three injured people in hospital. It said search and rescue work was still under way. The Guardian also reported Klitschko’s count of at least one death and three wounded at the academy.

Hromadske reported that the Kyiv City Military Administration confirmed a woman had been killed in the district. It also said Klitschko had reported five people injured, without making clear that all five were hurt at the academy. These figures were reported at different points in an evolving response, and a final casualty count for the academy building was not established in the published accounts.

Staff escaped through windows

The strike started a fire in the historic building. The Guardian described people climbing out of first- and second-floor windows as flames spread. Hromadske reported that rescuers helped people escape through windows and that videos from the scene showed employees on windowsills. Firefighters searched the building, according to the Reuters account carried by The Irish Times.

Olha Atamanenko, an employee of the academy’s presidium, told hromadske she had stepped out for lunch shortly before the impact. Most employees remained inside, she said, and several had not yet been reached when she spoke. Academy president Anatoliy Zagorodny also told The Guardian that many staff were in the building and that he feared some colleagues might still be trapped.

Among the injured was academy first vice-president Volodymyr Horbulin, hromadske reported, citing BBC News Ukraine and two sources it had consulted. The report said shattered glass caused minor injuries and that Horbulin later returned home. The full extent of damage to the building had not been established in the available reporting.

A strike in the historic centre

The Guardian described the academy building as a 19th-century structure near the German embassy, the National Opera, St Volodymyr’s Cathedral and government buildings. Zagorodny, speaking outside the building, said the academy was not connected with the military and called the strike an attack on science. His statement does not establish why the building was hit; no independently verified motive was reported.

Emergency services responded as attacks affected other parts of Kyiv. Ukrainska Pravda reported that district head Oleksandr Sazanovych asked residents to stay away from the strike scene so responders could work. The city administration’s timeline also recorded a separate drone impact on a seven-storey administrative building in the same district later that afternoon.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would respond to the academy strike and other attacks on Kyiv and Dnipro, according to hromadske. The Guardian reported that he called for stronger international pressure on Russia. Reuters reported that Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of cynicism for striking a scientific institution in the middle of the working day.

The Guardian also quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying Ukraine would pay a price for actions taken in recent months, referring to Ukrainian strikes inside Russia. That statement is the Kremlin’s account of the wider attacks; the reporting does not establish a specific reason for the academy strike. The immediate questions for rescuers and city officials remained whether anyone else was inside the building and how much damage it sustained.