Kyiv Hospital Strike Injures Three After Russian Drone Hits Building Near Embassies
A Russian drone struck an orthopedic hospital in the heart of Kyiv overnight, injuring three people. Thirty patients were moved to safety.
KYIV, Nov 14 – A Russian drone hit a hospital in central Kyiv early on Friday, injuring three people, in a Kyiv hospital strike that came hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that limits on a United States satellite service were making it harder to shoot down drones.
The drone struck the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics at about 3 a.m. It struck the second floor of the six-storey building and an adjacent 19th-century structure.
The blast shattered windows in nearby buildings, including at the National Academy of Arts across the road.
The hospital is in the Shevchenkivskyi district, close to the Danish and Romanian embassies. The area is also home to cafes and a park that’s popular with dog walkers.
Smoke poured from the building as firefighters led shaken patients out into the yard.
One witness, a man named Oleksandr, said the strike only just missed the patients. “We were asleep when there was this massive boom,” he said.
He said there was glass all over the floor and people running everywhere. If the drone had landed a little further to the left, he said, it would have been far worse. He called the attack on wounded people a low act.
Hospital director Roman Derkach said medical services had been suspended for now while the cleanup got underway. Thirty patients were taken to safety, he said.
Russia hasn’t commented on the strike. It denies targeting civilians.
The attack came a day after Zelenskyy said Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk’s Starlink service, was again facing major disruptions. The system is run by SpaceX and overseen by the Pentagon.
Zelenskyy said some Russian drones had got through because Ukrainian interceptors that rely on the service couldn’t reach the speed needed to knock them down. It’s the second slowdown in recent weeks, after one last month that hasn’t been explained.
The White House hasn’t said why the service has been limited again.
But the timing has drawn attention, as the slowdown came during a week of intense U.S.-led diplomacy in which President Donald Trump appeared to press Zelenskyy to cede land to Russia.
Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday. They then flew to Dublin to brief Zelenskyy. Their visit followed three-way talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Russia’s negotiators want Ukraine to hand over four provinces. That includes cities and villages that Russian forces have not captured.
Moscow is also calling for a new security setup in Europe. In effect, it wants the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to return to its pre-1997 composition, before Eastern European countries began joining.
At the same time, Russia doesn’t want European countries involved in the talks.
French President Emmanuel Macron pushed back on Thursday. He said Europe must take part, since United States support for Kyiv had ended. “Without Europeans, there is no support for Ukraine,” Macron said.
Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure in recent weeks. It has hit power plants, passenger trains and two bridges over the Dnipro River. Ukraine says the strikes are part of a campaign of terror meant to wear down a tired population.
Overnight strikes on energy sites caused power cuts in 12 regions, Deputy Energy Minister Artem Nekrasov said. Among them were Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk.
He said energy workers were working faster than usual. But new attacks and constant air raid alerts were slowing down repairs, he said.
Ukraine also launched a large attack of its own. Russia said it shot down nearly 1,200 Ukrainian drones overnight, one of the biggest swarms Kyiv has sent. Russian officials said at least four people were killed in the southern Volgograd region.
