A barrage of Russian missiles and drones tore into Kyiv overnight, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 30 in one of the heaviest bombardments of the Ukrainian capital since the full-scale invasion began. Explosions rattled the city center within minutes of the first air-raid warning shortly before midnight, and a second wave struck after dawn, sending residents back into shelters as the attack stretched into Thursday afternoon.
Ukraine's air force said Russia fired dozens of ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles alongside 168 drones in the overnight assault, described by an account from the scene as combining nearly every weapon in Russia's long-range arsenal. Air defenses shot down 41 of 46 cruise missiles and 145 drones, officials said, but intercepted none of an unspecified number of fast-moving ballistic missiles — the category doing the most damage on the ground. Kinzhal and Zircon hypersonic weapons, Iskander and North Korean-supplied KN-23 ballistics, and sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles were all identified in the strike.
The worst damage was in the Solomianskyi district west of the city center, where eight people were killed after the top floors of a multistory apartment block were destroyed. Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said a school and a children's medical center were among the buildings damaged. A separate strike leveled a mostly disused building in a car park that was sometimes used informally as a shelter; no one was killed there, though several vehicles burned. Attacks in the wider Kyiv region killed one man in Brovary and damaged warehouses in Boryspil, including a facility run by the Ukrainian Red Cross.
A war fought increasingly at range
The assault fits a pattern of both sides pushing long-range strikes deeper and more often as ground fighting grinds on largely unchanged. Ukraine has been hitting refineries and fuel depots near Moscow with newly developed cruise missiles and drones — Russia confirmed this week it has begun importing refined petroleum to offset the damage — while Russia has leaned harder on ballistic missiles against Kyiv, which are far harder to shoot down than drones or slower cruise missiles.
That imbalance is compounded by a shortage that has left Ukraine's capital more exposed than at almost any point in the war: Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that Patriot interceptor stockpiles are running critically low, forcing commanders to ration the missiles capable of downing ballistic threats. Ukraine's air force stopped publicly disclosing how many ballistic missiles Russia launches in each attack earlier this month, citing security concerns — a shift widely read as an admission that the numbers themselves have become a vulnerability.
The barrage also rippled beyond Ukraine's borders. Romania's defense ministry said it scrambled two NATO-deployed Spanish fighter jets and a helicopter after radar detected a drone that crossed into its airspace near Galați before crashing in Tulcea county. Poland activated its own air defenses along the Ukrainian border, and Finland said it suspected a Russian aircraft had violated its airspace the same day. Russia, meanwhile, said Ukraine sent roughly 250 drones toward the Moscow region overnight, most of which were destroyed well short of the capital.
Zelensky's appeal, and a fragile diplomatic track
President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike "a massive attack" that Russia had "been preparing for a long time, combining different types of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, aiming to cause as much damage as possible to civilian infrastructure."
While Moscow is investing in ballistic missiles and escalation, such strikes do not always receive the response they should. And as long as Ukraine does not have enough anti-ballistic defense, Russia will not consider peace seriously.
Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine
The attack lands awkwardly against a diplomatic backdrop that had, until this week, shown modest signs of movement. President Trump surprised Kyiv last month with a public promise to let Ukraine license production of Patriot interceptors domestically, and the two leaders have discussed reviving stalled talks with Moscow. But the production deal has since stalled amid disagreements over technology transfers, and Trump has not committed additional interceptors from America's own depleted stocks. With no ceasefire in place and both sides escalating strikes deep behind the front lines, officials in Kyiv say further attacks on the capital are likely before any negotiating track produces results.
