Russia resumes Kyiv strikes after U.S. envoys leave, killing two

Two people died in Kyiv and at least 16 were wounded after Russia resumed a combined drone and missile attack on the capital in the early hours of Tuesday, 8 September. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said explosions lasted nearly five hours. Damage was logged at more than 50 sites, including apartment blocks, a dormitory, school grounds, shops, petrol stations and a flour plant.

The strike ended a short pause that had held while U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday. Reuters reported that the barrage began after the visitors left. Ukraine again asked partners for more interceptor missiles. The Russian defence ministry, quoted by Russian agencies, said it had hit military and logistics targets in Kyiv, the surrounding region and the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk.

Where the city was hit

National Police said the two deaths were in the Solomianskyi district, which also produced the highest number of injuries. Eight people aged 22 to 65 were hurt there with cuts, shrapnel wounds and injuries to the face, neck, torso and limbs. A 29-year-old foreign national was injured in the Darnytskyi district. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said five of the wounded were hospitalised and two were in critical condition at one point in the morning count.

Police recorded debris and blast damage in seven districts: Shevchenkivskyi, Holosiivskyi, Darnytskyi, Obolonskyi, Podilskyi, Solomianskyi and Dniprovskyi. Fourteen apartment blocks were damaged, along with an accommodation centre, a school, a clinic, about 25 cars, a supermarket and warehouses. The entrance to Tarasa Shevchenka metro station was also hit.

In Holosiivskyi, a 26-storey non-residential building took a strike. Rescuers pulled one injured person from a search and evacuated two people trapped in a 16-storey residential block after the blast wave jammed their apartment. In Solomianskyi, people were trapped in a five-storey building. The State Emergency Service said it rescued 13 people in total, including residents blocked in premises in Holosiivskyi. Emergency vehicles were hit in a repeated strike.

Beyond the capital

Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said eight other regions were targeted. Close to 100 people were evacuated after drones hit a train in the northern Sumy region. Late Monday, drones struck industrial sites and a logistics complex in the Boryspil and Fastiv districts of Kyiv region. Seven trucks were destroyed at one location. A logistics facility was hit twice before crews put the fires out.

Before the weekend talks, Russian attacks on Kyiv had moved toward near round-the-clock pressure, including faster jet-propelled drones. Both sides have increased long-range strikes in recent weeks. Zelenskyy has told partners the fighting is likely to continue into winter after the latest U.S. contacts.

What the numbers show

Morning figures moved as rescue work continued. Kyiv City Military Administration first listed two dead and seven injured at 06:30. By mid-morning the police count was two dead and ten injured. Klymenko later raised the wounded total in the capital to 16. Early Reuters copy citing Klitschko had spoken of three dead. The later official city and interior ministry line settled on two fatalities in Kyiv itself.

The sequence matters for the talks. Kushner and Witkoff’s visit was their first official stop in a renewed White House push to end a war now in its fifth year. The pause in air attacks lasted only for that window. Once they left, the capital absorbed another multi-hour barrage against housing, a school and a clinic.

Ukraine’s request after the attack was specific: more interceptors. City officials listed the damaged civilian inventory in public statements rather than general language about infrastructure. That list, and the five-hour duration Klymenko described, is the record of what resumed when the envoys flew out.