Russian drone strikes National Academy of Sciences building in central Kyiv
On 28 September, a Russian jet drone directly hit the Presidium building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine on Volodymyrska Street in Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district, causing a large fire. At least one woman was killed and several others were injured, with reports of further fatalities still being clarified. President Zelensky said Ukraine would respond, and the strike was part of a broader day of Russian drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Key points
- Strike hit the NASU Presidium building at Volodymyrska Street, 54, in central Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district around 13:30 on 28 September.
- A large fire broke out; the second and third floors of the three-storey building were partially destroyed.
- City officials reported one woman killed; the State Emergency Service later cited one killed and seven injured.
- NASU President Anatoliy Zagorodniy and the State Language Commissioner said two academics were killed; the assistant of former NSDC Secretary Volodymyr Horbulin was preliminarily reported killed, and Horbulin himself was injured.
- The drone is described as a Russian jet-powered UAV, possibly a Shahed-type; video of the impact is described as showing a direct, targeted hit.
- Same-day Russian strikes also hit a pharmaceutical company, gas stations and an Ukrtelecom facility in Kyiv, and a business centre in Dnipro.
- Zelensky said the response to the strikes 'will definitely come' and called on partners not to normalize terror.
Why it matters
The strike hit a landmark scientific institution in the centre of Kyiv during the working day, with NASU staff inside at the time, and was captured on video described as showing a direct, targeted hit. It drew personal reactions from President Zelensky and former Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhny, and was paired with Russian strikes the same day on a pharmaceutical company, gas stations and an Ukrtelecom facility in Kyiv and a business centre in Dnipro. The Presidium building also carries symbolic weight as the original seat of Ukrainian academic science since 1918, on an address that was shelled by Bolshevik forces under Muravyov in January 1918 — a parallel several Ukrainian outlets drew explicitly.
What happened
On 28 September, around 13:30, a Russian jet drone struck the Presidium building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine at Volodymyrska Street, 54, in Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district, triggering a large fire. The strike hit the second and third floors of the three-storey building, partially destroying them; people trapped inside were seen on video trying to escape through windows on the upper floors, and rescuers used ladders to pull two people to safety. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko reported one woman killed and, initially, three injured and hospitalized, with later updates raising the injured count to four and then five; the State Emergency Service later cited one killed and seven injured. NASU President Anatoliy Zagorodniy and Ukraine's Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language said two academics were killed, and BBC News Ukraine sources reported that former NSDC Secretary and NASU Vice-President Volodymyr Horbulin was injured while his assistant Natalia was preliminarily reported killed. A separate Russian strike that day hit a seven-storey administrative building in the Shevchenkivskyi district reportedly housing a Dobrobut clinic. President Zelensky said a rescue operation was under way, with services extinguishing the fire and searching for people who may have been inside, and said Ukraine would 'definitely' respond. He also noted that the same day Russia struck a pharmaceutical company and gas stations in Kyiv and a business centre in Dnipro; consequences of the day's attacks were also recorded in the Podilskyi, Holosiivskyi, Darnytskyi and Obolonskyi districts of Kyiv, with damage to gas stations and other non-residential buildings, and an Ukrtelecom facility was hit — the operator said service was not affected and no staff were injured.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Ukrainian coverage centres on the direct, targeted nature of the hit — video of the drone descending onto the Presidium is repeatedly cited as evidence of intent — and on the historic symbolism of the building, linking the 2026 strike to the Bolshevik shelling of the same Volodymyrska, 54 address in January 1918 and to the 1918 founding of Ukrainian academic science under Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi, with Volodymyr Vernadsky as the Academy's first president. Ukrainian outlets foreground official reactions — Zelensky's promise that Russia 'will definitely be answered', former Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhny's personal statement that people close to him were killed and the academy would be rebuilt, and calls from the Ministry of Education and Science for the international scientific community to isolate Russian academia. Eyewitness accounts from NASU staff members Olha Atamanenko and Leonid Fedorenko — describing the lunch-break timing, unreachable colleagues and a blown-out office window — are used to underline the human toll, alongside footage of people escaping through upper-floor windows while SES rescuers pulled them to safety. The strike is framed as part of a broader pattern of drone attacks on Kyiv that day hitting a pharmaceutical company, gas stations and an Ukrtelecom facility in Kyiv, and a business centre in Dnipro.
How international sources describe it
The two non-Ukrainian sources — an Azerbaijani agency and an English-language wire — present the strike in compact, event-focused terms: a Russian drone hits the NASU building, a fire breaks out, there are casualties, a rescue operation is under way, and Zelensky's promise of a response is quoted. They do not develop the deeper Ukrainian-historical contextualization — the building's role as the original seat of the Academy since 1918, the Bolshevik shelling of the same address in January 1918, or the broader scientific-institutional impact — that Ukrainian outlets foreground. No international-vs-Ukrainian split in political labelling is supplied in the synthesis beyond this difference in depth and emphasis.
Where reporting differs
Sources disagree on the casualty toll from the NASU strike. Kyiv city officials and Mayor Klitschko reported one woman killed, with the number of injured rising over the day from three to four and then five; the State Emergency Service reported one killed and seven injured. NASU President Anatoliy Zagorodniy and the Ukrainian Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language said two academics were killed, and BBC News Ukraine sources reported former NSDC Secretary and NASU Vice-President Volodymyr Horbulin injured and his assistant Natalia preliminarily reported killed. Across all Russian attacks on Kyiv that day, Klitschko's earlier figure of 14 injured and one killed citywide was later raised to 19 injured and one killed by 15:50.
Background
The Presidium building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine sits at Volodymyrska Street, 54, in Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district, near the Teatralna and Zoloti Vorota metro stations. The building dates to the 1850s as the Pension of Countess Levashova and has housed the Academy since 1919; the Academy itself was founded in Kyiv on 27 November 1918 under Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi, with Volodymyr Vernadsky as its first president. In January 1918 Bolshevik forces under Muravyov shelled the same Volodymyrska, 54 address, damaging its walls, breaking windows and destroying the roof — a parallel several Ukrainian outlets drew to the 2026 strike. The Academy is headed by Anatoliy Zagorodniy, president since 2020, and comprises 14 scientific departments and more than 150 scientific institutions; one supplied figure puts staff at roughly 24,000 people, including more than 13,000 researchers, as of the beginning of 2026. The 28 September strike, around 13:30, came during the lunch break when most NASU employees were inside the building, and was part of a broader pattern of overnight, morning and daytime Russian drone attacks on Kyiv that day across the Shevchenkivskyi, Podilskyi, Holosiivskyi, Darnytskyi, Obolonskyi and Pecherskyi districts.