EU raises outcry as Russian missiles strike near diplomatic mission in Kyiv, killing 18

BRUSSELS (CN) — Russian missiles came within 165 feet of the European Union’s diplomatic compound in central Kyiv early Thursday, killing 18 civilians across the city in the deadliest attack on Ukraine’s capital since July and marking a potential escalation in Moscow’s targeting of Western interests.

Two missiles slammed into central Kyiv during the early morning strike, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. No EU staff were hurt, but the attack marked the closest Russia has come to directly hitting a major Western diplomatic facility since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The death toll was confirmed by Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration.

“This shows that the Kremlin will stop at nothing to terrorize Ukraine, blindly killing civilians,” von der Leyen said at an emergency briefing in Brussels.

The EU building suffered structural damage from the blast waves and will need major repairs, said EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova. A spokesperson for the commission — the EU’s executive branch — said the mission remains fully operational.

Von der Leyen wrote on X that she had spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and then U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Putin must come to the negotiating table. We must secure a just and lasting peace for Ukraine with firm and credible security guarantees that will turn the country into a steel porcupine. Europe will fully play its part,” she said.

Brussels plans to hit back with its 19th package of sanctions against Moscow in early September. EU officials are also pushing to use more frozen Russian assets — not just investment profits — to fund Ukraine’s war effort, with discussions set for this weekend during parallel meetings of the bloc’s defense ministers and foreign affairs ministers in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia on Thursday of deliberately “targeting diplomats — in direct breach of the Vienna Convention” — the international agreement that protects diplomatic missions.

The attack also damaged Britain’s cultural office nearby.

“Putin is sabotaging hopes of peace, " said U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, while French President Emmanuel Macron called the strikes “[an act of] terror” and “barbarism.”

Both the EU and Britain summoned Russian diplomats to protest.

The strike comes as the 27-nation European Union — a political and economic alliance separate from but closely aligned with NATO — has poured over $100 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid into Ukraine since Russia’s February 2022 invasion. The damaged building in Ukraine’s capital coordinates much of that assistance.

Ukraine became an EU candidate member in June 2022, fast-tracking a process that normally takes years.

Von der Leyen announced she will tour seven EU countries that border Russia and Belarus starting Friday — visiting weapons factories, drone plants and border operations from Latvia to Romania.

Energy trade, once Russia’s economic lifeline to Europe, has virtually disappeared. According to a Eurostat report released Thursday, the EU’s energy trade deficit with Russia dropped from 46.6 billion euros ($50.8 billion) in early 2022 to just 0.8 billion euros ($0.9 billion) this year.

Those sanctions appear to be working domestically. Russia slashed its 2025 growth forecast from 2.5% to 1.5% this week as high interest rates choke off business lending. Russia’s central bank hiked rates to 21% — the highest in two decades — before cutting them to 18% in July.

Despite earlier wartime growth above 4%, Russian officials acknowledged Wednesday the economy faces “significant headwinds” from credit costs and labor shortages, even as military spending remains at Cold War levels.

The diplomatic strikes occurred as peace efforts have stalled. Russia has rejected international peacekeeping proposals and continues demanding Ukraine surrender entire regions Moscow doesn’t fully control. Kyiv on Thursday called for an emergency U.N. Security Council session to address the bombardment, while Ukrainian diplomatic officials were scheduled to hold discussions with Trump administration representatives Friday about ongoing mediation efforts.

Von der Leyen’s forceful response appeared calculated to pressure Putin into serious negotiations by demonstrating that attacks on Western diplomatic facilities would only strengthen European resolve rather than weaken it.

Her statements came as EU leaders race to formalize Trump’s vague security commitments to Ukraine within days, with European nations prepared to provide concrete military backing including “reassurance operations in the air, at sea and on land,” according to Macron.

Courthouse News correspondent Yuval Molina Obedman is based in Brussels, Belgium.