Russian drones hit Kyiv in daylight, debris sets bus on fire

Several explosions shook Kyiv on Thursday afternoon as Russian drones targeted the city. Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said air defenses were activated and told residents to stay in safe locations.

Debris from the drones landed on a road in the Shevchenkivskyi district, damaging a passenger car and setting a bus on fire, according to Klitschko. Ukrainian media reported that Russian jet-powered drones were flying toward the capital — an unusual daytime raid on Kyiv.

The strikes landed as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had been briefed by Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara and Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapaty on SpaceX's Starshield satellite communications system being disrupted over Ukrainian territory for several days. Zelensky said the system's speed limits are in effect at 161 kilometers per hour, and that the military checked and concluded these were not random errors but a deliberate system speed limit.

In Brussels, French Minister Delegate for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad said the European Union will roll out fresh sanctions against Russia on Monday, hitting 150 more entities and 50 banks. France proposed most of the entities in the package, he told LCI television, and he condemned Russia's ban on two French lawmakers and two journalists. Separately, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters that planning is underway for a meeting of the Chinese, US and Russian presidents at the APEC summit in Shenzhen next week, saying 'everything is still in progress.'