Russian drone strikes Kyiv school as children and teachers shelter

Ukrainian officials and news reports said a Russian drone hit a Kyiv school on Oct 1 as children and staff took refuge there during an air-raid warning. No children or teachers were injured in the attack on the Ukrainian capital.²³⁴⁵

Lessons continued underground

The Guardian identified the building as School 12 and reported that 104 children were present when the alert sounded. Pupils continued their lessons in classrooms in the shelter before the drone hit, shattering windows and partly destroying a wall, according to the report. Valentyna Chorna, whom the newspaper identified as the headteacher, said: “Children are our future, the future of our nation.”³

The Independent reported that the drone’s warhead did not detonate and that there was no immediate report of casualties. The Straits Times said the strike started a fire and that Ukraine’s State Emergency Service released images showing rescuers working at the damaged, blackened building; those details were not confirmed by the other reports in the dossier.¹²

Other strikes across Kyiv

The school was among several sites reported hit in Kyiv. According to Meduza, an overnight drone assault caused a blaze on the ground level of a 16-storey residential building and ignited cars nearby. It also reported a warehouse fire in the Obolonskyi district and said one person was injured across the Kyiv incidents.⁵

Al Jazeera reported that two drones hit a bridge linking eastern and western Kyiv, suspending metro and surface transport. It also said a drone struck the grounds of a nuclear research facility, causing a fire without damaging its test reactor. Ukraine’s nuclear safety watchdog said the attack sparked a fire that was put out promptly and caused no injuries.⁴

Odesa also hit

Reports citing local officials said a Russian attack damaged infrastructure in Odesa, the port on the Black Sea. The Straits Times and Meduza reported that one person was injured when an office or business building was hit. Russia said it had targeted a data centre in Odesa and a cargo ship in Chornomorsk, reiterating its claim that it attacks military sites only.¹⁵

Pressure on air defences

Al Jazeera reported that the number of Russian drone strikes against Ukraine reached 3,177 through Sept 29, compared with 2,850 during August. The Independent said Ukraine was having difficulty countering an intensified mix of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, while Patriot missiles capable of defending against ballistic weapons remained in short supply.²⁴

According to The Independent, Ukrainian officials described the previous day’s barrage as the largest Russian attack on the country’s power grid since last spring. The newspaper also reported that Russia used a new jet-powered drone fitted with a warhead intended to cut high-voltage pylons. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had struck a site used to store and launch attack drones in Russia’s Oryol region.²