Drone Strikes Kyiv Hospital as Zelenskyy Cites Starshield Disruptions

A drone struck the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics in central Kyiv at 3am, hitting the second floor of the hospital and an adjoining 19th-century building. The Guardian reported that three people were injured.

The six-storey hospital stands in Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district, close to the Danish and Romanian embassies. The blast blew out windows in nearby buildings, including the National Academy of Arts, which lies across the road.

The strike came as Ukraine's air defences were under strain from a satellite communications problem. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Starshield was again experiencing significant disruptions, after what he described as an unexplained slowdown last month. Starshield is the Ukrainian military's version of Starlink. It is operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX and overseen by the Pentagon, the US Department of Defense.

Zelenskyy said that speed restrictions on the system had made it harder for Ukraine to shoot down enemy drones. He said some Russian aerial sorties got through because Ukrainian interceptor systems that rely on the US satellite service could not reach the speed needed to knock out the drones.

Russia claimed it had shot down nearly 1,200 Ukrainian drones overnight. Russia also reported that at least four people had been killed in the southern region of Volgograd.