‘It’s like a funeral’ — As US mimics peace talks, Russian missile strike on Kyiv kills at least 18
Firefighters extinguish a fire at a destroyed building after a Russian drone-and-missile attack on Aug. 28, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Oleksandr Magula/Suspilne Ukraine/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
War
Living near the Kyiv Radio Plant and a railway station, 22-year-old Andrii Lyutiy knew that a Russian missile attack on his apartment building on the edge of the capital was inevitable.
With Russia targeting both military and non-military facilities in the city on a regular basis, Lyutiy tries to go down to the shelter with his mother every time Russia launches ballistic missiles at Kyiv.
"We know that if it's ballistic (missiles), there is a good chance that they could fly directly at us," Lyutiy told the Kyiv Independent on Aug. 28, just hours after his apartment building was struck by Russia's latest attack on Kyiv.
In the early hours of Aug. 28, Russia unleashed a large-scale missile and drone strike on Kyiv and other cities far from the front line. Local authorities reported that at least 18 people were killed in the capital, most of them in Lyutiy's five-story apartment building, in the industrial but cozy Darnytskyi district.
Among the killed were three kids, aged two, 14, and 17, according to the Interior Ministry. As of 11 a.m. local time, 10 people were still missing — likely under the rubble, waiting to be excavated. Dozens were wounded.
The Russian early morning missile strike on Kyiv occurred about two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin met his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, who has been making an increasing number of contradictory moves in an attempt to end the war in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky met Trump a few days later at the White House, expressing readiness to hold a bilateral meeting with Putin and potentially a trilateral meeting involving the U.S. president.
Russia's most recent missile attack has once again raised questions about Moscow's readiness for actual peace talks. The attack on Kyiv damaged the headquarters of the EU mission to Ukraine, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying that two missiles hit within 50 meters.
"While the world seeks a path to peace, Russia responds with missiles," said Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat.
"The overnight attack on Kyiv shows a deliberate choice to escalate and mock the peace efforts."
Russia has ramped up its attacks on cities such as Kyiv after the so-called peace talks began, killing 286 Ukrainians and injuring 1,388 in July alone, the largest toll since May 2022. The deadliest Russian missile attack on Kyiv was also in July, killing 32.
Inside chaos
Lyutiy was up playing video games on his computer when the first wave of the Russian strikes began at around 3 a.m., hitting somewhere in the direction of the Radio Plant. He knew his home could be next, so he barely convinced his mother to go down to the basement with him.
As soon as he headed down to the basement with his mother, the first Russian missile strike hit somewhere around the fifth floor of his section of the apartment building. Screams and cries echoed through the building, along with the darkness and the terrible chemical smell.
When Lyutiy began to worry about the possibility of flooding in the basement as water began to leak, the second missile landed somewhere nearby, leaving him concussed from the blast wave. He noticed that his head was bleeding.
He made it out of the building with his mother despite losing his phone and walked barefoot to the railway station about two kilometers away to seek shelter. He has no idea how the exit to the basement shelter didn't get blocked, as the building began to collapse.
"I wasn't in shock, but was making quick decisions and actions," Lyutiy, who works in the tourism industry, said.
"At that moment, I didn't know if I would survive or not."
While the pain of witnessing their own homes — for some, a place where they spent their entire life — destroyed is unbearable, nothing compares to the agonizing wait until they find out if their loved ones and friends made it out alive.
Three residents stood in shock outside the partially destroyed apartment building, where the State Emergency Service workers continued to clear the rubble throughout the day, looking for bodies.
Among those waiting was 52-year-old geography teacher Natalia Levchuk, who said she was waiting for the body of a neighbor on the fourth floor to be found. She said the neighbor was a very welcoming and kind woman around 50, leaving behind a son, who also stood outside waiting.
"It's as if you are at a funeral," Levchuk told the Kyiv Independent, looking at her own home.
Another resident, 45-year-old Kateryna Kucher, who was not home when the Russian missile strike hit, said she was worried about the fate of a 14-year-old boy who is a friend of her own son.
Even though the authorities reported the death of a 14-year-old boy, Kucher still didn't know if it was the boy she had in mind.
The war has already taken what could be an irreversible toll on her two kids, aged 15 and 12. While her son, who has a serious disability, keeps his emotions to himself, the daughter sometimes abruptly starts crying, asking, "Mom, I don't understand what I'm scared of."
"When you see this (own home destroyed by a Russian missile strike), you can't hold on (your emotions)," Kucher told the Kyiv Independent.
