Russian drone attack on Kyiv kills five-year-old girl, her father, injures her mother

Mar 23, 2025 - 16:00

russian drone attack kyiv kills five-year-old girl father injures mother fire after overnight 23 2025 d8b0c431-12e4-4bd6-8c56-50d259aa306e ukraine news ukrainian reports

Three people were killed in Kyiv as a result of the Russian drone attack, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. Among the dead were a five-year-old girl and her father who lived in a modular house in the Holosiivskyi district, where a fire broke out due to the attack. The 26-year-old mother of the child was hospitalized.

Russia continues its deliberate daily air attacks on residential areas and civilian infrastructure. Since October 2022, it has systematically targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with extensive missile and drone assaults, aiming to disrupt civilian life.

The third fatality was an 80-year-old woman in the Dniprovskyi district, where Shahed drone debris hit a high-rise building, causing fires and damaging several apartments. Three more people were diagnosed with acute stress reaction, according to the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.

In total, 10 were injured, including an eleven-month-old, the Kyiv Administration said.

The State Emergency Service reported that drone debris fell in five districts of the capital. In the Dniprovskyi district, drone remains hit a 9-story residential building, causing a fire on the upper floors that spread to the roof. Rescuers extinguished the 100-square-meter fire and evacuated 27 people.
Also in the Dniprovskyi district, an apartment on the 6th floor of a 16-story building suffered damage to windows, floor, and ceiling. A 29-year-old man was injured by falling drone debris, the prosecutor’s office said.
In the Podilskyi district, falling debris from a Russian drone caused a 20-square-meter fire on the 20th floor of a 25-story residential building. The fire has been extinguished.
In the Holosiivskyi district, emergency services were working to extinguish a fire at a 4-story office and warehouse building that broke out due to the drone attack. The fire spread to an area of 2,000 square meters. Firefighters also extinguished a fire affecting a residential trailer and freight vehicles covering an area of 60 square meters.
In the Desnianskyi district, Russian drones started a fire in an open area within a forest belt, while in the Shevchenkivskyi district, two passenger vehicles were damaged.

The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into war crimes that resulted in civilian deaths.

Two people, a 28-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man, were injured in a Russian drone attack on Kyiv Oblast overnight on 23 March, damaging private homes and a business, with the victims suffering minor injuries from debris and stress, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the Kyiv Oblast Military Administration.

The office of the online news outlet Obozrevatel was also damaged in the attack, the publication reported, adding that the explosion wave blew out windows and doors, and the studio suffered serious damage.

Nationwide drone assault

The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russia attacked Ukraine with 147 Shahed strike drones and decoy drones overnight on 23 March, starting from 19:00 on 22 March.

Ukrainian air defense forces reported destroying 97 attack drones, while another 25 drones were lost from radar. The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile forces, electronic warfare units, and mobile fire groups of the Air Force and Defense Forces of Ukraine.

The report’s figures suggest that at least 25 Russian drones might have reached their intended targets.

“Last night, the enemy used a larger number of strike UAVs (at least 122 units) and decoy drones – 25!” the Air Force statement said.

As a result of the Russian attack, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Odesa, and Donetsk oblasts were affected, according to the report.

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