Russian Drone Strike Hits Kyiv Science Academy, Killing Staff

Russian drones and missiles struck Kyiv through the day on September 28, hitting the National Academy of Sciences building in the city centre, a private medical centre and several other sites, killing multiple people and wounding dozens, as Ukrainian officials reported a fourth consecutive night and day of bombardment on the capital.¹³⁵

Strike on the Academy

A drone launched by Russia struck a National Academy of Sciences facility in central Kyiv, igniting flames as occupants fled by climbing out of windows on the first and second floors. The Guardian and a dispatch relayed through Al Jazeera and the Times of India put the casualty count at one fatality and three injuries, whereas Meduza and Azerbaijan's APA agency instead reported that two academics had died.²⁴⁷⁸

Volodymyr Horbulin, who serves as the academy's first vice-president and previously held a senior security post, happened to be on-site during the strike and came away with a slight injury, while one of his assistants died. Anatoliy Zagorodny, the academy's president, said, "I feared some of my colleagues could still be trapped inside the academy."¹⁵²

Situated near the National Opera, St Volodymyr's Cathedral, government offices and the German embassy, the academy has for years maintained close links with Ukraine's defence sector. According to the New York Times, the academy is the source of almost all of Ukraine's major scientific discoveries; the Guardian reported the building itself dates to the 19th century.²⁴⁶

Wider assault on the capital

A private medical centre near the academy was also struck, killing at least one person, according to the Guardian and the Al Jazeera/TOI report; NBC News said seven people, six of them employees, were injured at the Dobrobut medical centre. Russian drones killed two people and injured 26 others across central Kyiv on September 28, including three children, according to NBC News.²⁴⁵

Elsewhere in the capital, two people were killed and four injured in a strike on the Stolichny food market the previous evening, a pharmaceutical plant in Darnytsia was struck again days after an earlier attack, and a warehouse strike in Brovary caused a minor ammonia leak. Kyiv's air force said Russia fired 124 drones at Ukraine, 86 of them jet-powered, and that defences shot down or suppressed 86 of them; a nine-hour air-raid alert was in effect over central Kyiv.⁵

The Kyiv Independent reported drones striking non-residential buildings in the Obolonskyi, Darnytskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts, a drone crash in the Podil neighbourhood that started a grass fire, and debris falling in the Dnipro and Darnytsky districts, with preliminary reports of casualties from the debris. Police halted trains and moved passengers into underground shelters.¹

Escalating tactics and stalled diplomacy

The Guardian and the Al Jazeera/TOI report noted that these newer jet-propelled drones outpace and evade defenses more effectively than earlier Shahed or Geran-2 variants, adding that Moscow has increasingly been launching assaults during daylight. Per the Kyiv Independent, Russia launched upward of 2,200 attack drones alongside roughly 1,650 aerial bombs and 38 assorted missiles at Ukraine within the preceding week, an offensive both outlets characterized as intended to wear down civilian morale and harm the economy.²⁴¹

A Russian drone also struck near the Yahodyn border crossing in Volyn Oblast, close to the Polish border, prompting Poland to issue an air-attack alert and urge residents of its eastern Lublin region to shelter; Poland's Defence Minister confirmed the drone struck Ukrainian territory without entering Polish airspace. Dmitry Peskov, speaking for the Kremlin, warned that Ukraine would face repercussions for striking Russian soil, with indications that Moscow's assaults may escalate further even as American-mediated attempts to broker peace remain largely stalled.¹⁴²