Russian Drone Hits the 20th Floor of a Residential Tower in Kyiv: Prosecutors Open a War Crime Investigation

On October 21, at around seven in the morning local time, a Russian drone hit a 24-storey residential tower in Kyiv's Sviatoshynskyi district, at the level of the twentieth floor. A fire broke out. A man aged 28 and a woman aged 30 were killed, and two more people were injured.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that a residential building had been hit: "In the Sviatoshynskyi district, a 24-storey residential building has been hit at the level of the twentieth floor. A fire broke out. Emergency services have been dispatched to the scene." The city military administration first reported one dead and one injured - then firefighters and rescuers found another body.

The fire engulfed a flat of around 70 square metres, the interior was badly damaged, and parts of the structure were destroyed. Footage of the moment of impact - an aircraft slamming at high speed into the upper part of the building, an explosion, fire and thick smoke - quickly spread across social media. The Kyiv prosecutor's office opened an investigation on suspicion of a war crime.

The tower wasn't the only target. In the Desnianskyi district, a drone fell on parked cars in the courtyard of a residential building, and the fire engulfed seven vehicles. In the Solomianskyi district, a transport infrastructure facility was hit. The attacks came in waves, from the evening of October 20 until the morning, and an air raid alert was declared again at around 5:20.

This is the part of the war that rarely makes it into the headlines about negotiations and peace plans: an apartment block, the twentieth floor, seven in the morning. The Balkans remembers well what it's like when home stops being a shelter. Who will answer for this - and will the investigation ever get further than paper?