Share and Follow
Russian forces have launched a large-scale overnight drone and missile attack on Kyiv, killing at least 15 people and injuring 38 while damaging residential and other buildings across seven districts, Ukrainian officials say.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack, which also killed a child, showed the world Russia’s answer to diplomacy amid efforts by US President Donald Trump to end the war.
“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” Zelenskyy said on X on Thursday, calling for new sanctions on Russia. “It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war.”
The Kremlin said on Thursday that it was still interested in pursuing peace talks on Ukraine despite the deadly strikes.
Asked if there was a contradiction between Moscow’s stated desire to make progress in peace talks and the attack, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that both sides were continuing to attack each other but that Russia was still interested in achieving its goals via diplomacy.
One of the biggest attacks on Kyiv in months, mayor says
Kyiv city authorities reported at least 38 injuries as the search and rescue operations were under way, with emergency services putting out the fires and sifting through the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Explosions lit up the night sky in the capital during the air alert, which lasted for over nine hours, with clouds of smoke covering the sky as drones buzzed overhead.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko described it as one of the biggest attacks on the city in recent months.
Ukraine’s air force said it downed 563 of 598 drones and 26 of 31 missiles launched by Russia in a country-wide attack. The air force recorded hits at 13 locations and debris falling at 26 locations.
“Unfortunately, the Russians’ style is typical in their attacks,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, wrote on Telegram.
“Combined strikes, from different directions. And systematic, targeting ordinary residential buildings.”
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its attack hit military industrial facilities and military air bases.
Moscow has regularly denied targeting civilians but dozens have died in recent months as it has stepped up strikes on densely populated areas far from the front lines of the war.
Ukrainian officials listed numerous buildings that had suffered damage, including several high-rise apartment blocks.
In Darnytskyi district, an eastern suburb, a five-storey building had been partly destroyed, Tkachenko said, and rescue teams were searching the rubble for trapped residents.
Emergency crews are tackling the aftermath of the attacks at more than 20 sites in the capital, he said.
Ukrainian attacks on Russia also continue
Separately, Moscow’s Defence Ministry said Russian air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 102 Ukrainian drones overnight, which had targeted at least seven regions.
In the overnight attack, Ukraine’s forces attacked Afipsky and Kuybyshevskyi oil refineries, according to the Ukrainian drone forces commander.
Russia confirmed one of the refineries had been hit and that a fire there had been put out.
Asked about the refinery attacks, Peskov said that Russia’s domestic fuel market was fully supplied and that the situation was under control.
The Kremlin spokesperson also hit back at accusations of Russia targeting civilians, saying that Russia was successfully hitting military and military-related infrastructure and that Ukraine’s strikes also included attacks on civilian infrastructure.
“You can see that strikes on Russian infrastructure, often on Russian civilian infrastructure, by the Kyiv regime are also continuing,” he said.
