A Russian drone and missile strike kills two in Kyiv. Ukrainian drones hit military facilities and airbases in Russia. Nearly half of Ukrainians have positive expectations for the Ukraine-U.S. minerals deal, a poll finds.
Russian drone and missile attack kills two in Kyiv
Russia launched a drone and missile attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight on Wednesday, killing a mother and her son in the capital. Drone debris fell in the city’s four districts, damaging apartment buildings and cars. Eight people, including four children, were injured in the attacks. The drone attack set fire to the upper floors of a nine-story apartment building in the Svyatoshynskyi district and damaged a five-story apartment house in the Shevchenkivskyi district, causing casualties.
The Kyiv city military administration said 28 drones and a ballistic missile targeted the capital. Ukraine’s Air Force said it had intercepted two Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles without specifying location. Falling debris from a ballistic missile damaged a non-residential site in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district, city authorities said. There were no reports of injuries in the incident.
In a post to X on Wednesday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said: “Overnight, the Russians launched 4 ballistic missiles and 142 drones – half of them were Shaheds. Dozens more UAVs are still in our skies.
“Kyiv was struck twice – first by ballistic missiles, then by drones in the morning. All emergency services are currently on the ground, assisting people. As of now, there are reports of 7 injured, including 4 children. Tragically, a woman and her son were killed. My condolences go out to the family and loved ones.
“Since evening there have also been numerous strikes on Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Kherson, and Dnipro regions. Emergency services were deployed in all those locations. After the Russian ballistic missile strike on Velyka Chernechchyna in Sumy region, the Russians also began dropping aerial bombs and shelling the area – just as rescue operations were underway.
“Only significantly intensified pressure on Russia and stronger sanctions can pave the way to diplomacy. Any measures depriving the aggressor of resources to wage war must be implemented to bring lasting peace. I thank our partners who share this view and help us. I thank everyone who helps Ukraine with air defense. Russia must be held accountable for its actions.”
In a report released later that day, the Ukrainian Air Force said that it shot down two of five Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles and 81 out of 187 drones launched by Russia overnight and in the morning. Sixty-four decoy drones disappeared off radar after likely being disabled by electronic warfare systems, it added.
Ukraine drones hit military facilities, airbases in Russia
Ukrainian drones fired into Russia on Wednesday hit military facilities and airbases, causing fires, and disrupted airports. NASA’s satellite observations detected fires at the Shaykovka airbase in the Kaluga region and at the Kubinka airbase near Moscow, the supposed aftermath of drone attacks, Astra Russian Telegram channel said.
Dmitry Milyayev, governor of the Tula region said air defenses had destroyed four drones over the region and emergency services were working on the scene. “Air defense systems remain on high alert and are now repelling the fifth wave of drone attacks,” he said.
In Tula, a drone strike hit the Instrument Design Bureau, one of Russia’s key military enterprises, Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Lieutenant Andriy Kovalenko, said on Wednesday. The installation manufactures anti-tank missile systems, small arms and remote weapon stations. Russia uses them in its war against Ukraine, he added.
Another target in Tula was the SPLAV plant — Russia’s leading developer of multiple launch rocket systems. “This is where the Grads, Uragans, and Smerches are made — weapons widely used against Ukrainian cities and on the battlefield. The enterprise has close links to the Rostec defense conglomerate and is one of top-priority arms producers for the Russian army,” Kovalenko said.
Eyewitness accounts reported by Russian Telegram channels said a fire followed a drone strike in the area where both military installations are located.
Another drone attack hit a plant in Saransk, in the Mordovia region, which produces fiber-optic systems used in military communications, Kovalenko said. The site was previously attacked in April. According to Astra Russian Telegram channel, just a few kilometers from the Optic-Fiber Systems plant are the Saransk Mechanical Plant and Saranskkabel-Optika, which may have been the targets of a second strike.
Local authorities announced the closures of schools, universities and kindergartens on Wednesday.
Nearly half of Ukrainians have positive expectations for Ukraine-U.S. minerals deal, poll finds
Nearly half of Ukrainians (47 per cent) have “mostly positive” expectations for the minerals deal that Ukraine and the U.S. signed last week, a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found.
Less than half that share (22 per cent) have a mostly negative outlook on the agreement. Nineteen per cent say the accord will have no impact on Ukraine, with the remaining 12 per cent undecided.
The balance between positive versus negative expectations stands at 25 per cent with positive views prevailing.
The pollster also measured approval of a number of Ukrainian public figures and surveyed its correlation to the views of the deal. Less than one-third of Ukrainians who trust any of the listed public figures have a mostly negative outlook on the minerals agreement. At the same time, in almost all cases, the share of Ukrainians having a favorable view of the accord exceeds that of those having negative expectations.
“The only exception is those who trust Yuriy Boyko [MP, chair of the Platform for Life and Peace parliamentary group]. Among them, the fewest have positive expectations and slightly more have negative expectations of the Agreement. There is also slightly less optimism among those who trust [blogger] Oleksiy Arestovych (although in his case the balance of expectations is still positive). However, these results are less reliable due to the small number of their supporters in the sample,” Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology said in a press statement accompanying the survey results.
“In the case of all other public figures, among those who trust them, almost a half or more believe that signing the Agreement will have more positive consequences for Ukraine,” he added.
“The survey results show that currently Ukrainians mostly have positive expectations from the Minerals Agreement and a minority has negative expectations. Moreover, we also see that among those who trust well-known public figures, in particular leaders of the political opposition, positive expectations from the Agreement also prevail. The exceptions are supporters of Boyko and (to a lesser extent) Arestovych,” Hrushetskyi said.
The survey is based on telephone interviews conducted among a nationwide sample of adults who live in government-controlled Ukrainian territory. The pollster began the research on May 2. Its field period will continue until mid-May, it said. As of May 6, the organization has carried out 561 interviews and has collected data enough to draw preliminary conclusions that will not be much different from the final ones.
Ukraine and the U.S. signed a minerals deal on April 30. The accord’s official name is the Agreement on the Establishment of a United States–Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. The document covers 57 types of natural resources and has a mention of U.S. military aid to Ukraine.