Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset has condemned the Russian attack on the building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NAS) in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky district.
“Another wave of senseless and violent Russian attacks on Ukraine. The building of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv is on fire. Our thoughts are with the Ukrainian people, including our colleagues in the Kyiv office, who continue to face these attacks with courage and determination. We will continue pushing for accountability for Russia’s crimes. Impunity will not prevail,” Berset said on X Monday.
As previously reported, a strike on the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) building on Monday sparked a fire on the upper floors. A rescue operation is currently underway at the scene.
The State Emergency Service reported one fatality and six injuries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that three children were among the injured. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko initially reported that the deceased was a woman; media outlets later identified her as an assistant to Volodymyr Horbulin, the former head of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), who was himself among the injured.
The press service of the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language reported that two academicians were killed in the Russian strike on the NAS building, and contact has been lost with several others. Valeriy Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK, reported multiple fatalities from the strike on the building; while he did not specify the exact number of victims, he noted that he had known them personally.
