Russia launched what officials described as the largest weapons assault on Kyiv in over four years of war, killing at least 27 people and injuring dozens more. The overnight attack deployed nearly 500 drones and more than 70 missiles across the capital and other parts of the country in the early hours of Thursday.
Explosions rocked Kyiv for several hours as successive waves of cruise and ballistic missiles arrived, with the city's air defense systems working to intercept incoming projectiles. Fires burned across multiple locations after dawn broke, with strikes and debris hitting residential buildings in several districts and a hotel on a central boulevard. In one area on the left bank of the Dnipro River, a large section of a nine-story apartment block was destroyed and reduced to rubble. Rescue workers continued searching through the remains throughout the day, with the death toll rising as the search progressed.
About 70 people were admitted to hospitals, and more than 50,000 residents took shelter in metro stations after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Wednesday that a massive attack was imminent. Some people brought mattresses and tents to sleep below ground as platforms filled with hundreds seeking safety.
Zelensky returned early from a trip to Ireland to visit attack sites in Kyiv on Thursday afternoon. He said that if allies had supplied the air defense missiles they had promised, the damage would have been significantly less. "We are fighting alone. The victims are only Ukrainians. All we ask from our partners is that they do what they agreed to," he said.
The Russian defense ministry claimed the strikes targeted military facilities and energy infrastructure, stating the attacks were retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. However, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha rejected this characterization, calling it "immoral" to equate an aggressor with a country defending itself. He emphasized that Ukraine has the right to strike legitimate military targets in Russia.
Ukraine has intensified long-range drone strikes against oil refineries in Russia in recent weeks, causing fuel shortages across the country. Multiple Russian regions have introduced petrol rationing, while Russian-occupied Crimea declared a state of emergency.
The attack prompted NATO ally Poland to scramble fighter jets as a preventive measure, while Finland briefly issued a temporary aviation restriction zone in the eastern Gulf of Finland.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the attacks "a stark reminder that while Ukraine continues to pursue peace, Putin continues to inflict suffering and violence on the Ukrainian people." Zelensky indicated his national security council secretary had been in contact with US negotiator Jared Kushner in recent days regarding peace efforts.