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At least two killed in Kiev after Russian airstrikes

2025-10-25 12:15:13, Kosova & Bota CNA

At least two people were killed and several others injured in Kiev overnight after a wave of Russian ballistic missiles caused powerful explosions and fires across the Ukrainian capital, the city's military authorities said on October 25.

A kindergarten in the Dniprovskiy district was damaged, and large fires broke out in non-residential areas of the Desnianskiy and Darnytskiy districts.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia carried out a major mixed attack overnight across the country, launching nine Iskander-M ballistic missiles from the Rostov and Kursk regions and 62 attack drones from several directions, including Kursk and Oryol in Russia and Hvardiiske in occupied Crimea.

The military said air defenses shot down four missiles and 50 drones, while confirming strikes at 11 locations, with morning assessments still under way.

The overnight escalation also coincided with a new diplomatic signal from Moscow.

Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, said he believes the United States, Ukraine and Russia are "quite close" to a diplomatic solution.

He did not elaborate on why he believes a diplomatic solution is imminent. The public positions of Russia and Ukraine still remain very distant on key issues, including territory and security guarantees.

Dmitriev is in the United States, and American media reports suggest he will meet with US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in Miami on October 25.

Plans for a meeting in Budapest on Ukraine were put on hold this week, with the White House stating there were no immediate plans for a meeting, while Trump warned that he did not want a “futile meeting.”

The suspension followed preparatory contacts in which Moscow rejected an immediate ceasefire that would lift the current front lines, pushing Washington to turn toward new sanctions on major Russian oil companies and strengthening European skepticism about a Budapest format without Kiev's conditions at the center.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Ukraine's Western backers are ready to take their effort to punish Moscow for continuing Europe's deadliest war in decades and force Putin to the negotiating table.

Starmer made the remarks after a meeting in London with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of the "Coalition of the Willing," a group of more than 20 countries assisting the war-torn country.

"We have been clear today that we must respond. Working with the US, this coalition is determined to go further than ever to increase the pressure on Putin, from the battlefield to his war economy, because that is the only way to change his mind and force him back to the table," Starmer said at a press conference after the two-hour meeting on October 24./REL