At least 17 civilians were killed and more than 90 injured after Russia launched an overnight barrage of missiles and drones on Kyiv that lasted around 11 hours into Thursday morning, Ukrainian officials said.
Moscow said the assault was retaliation for Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, while Kyiv maintained it was acting in self-defence and urged allies to strengthen its air defences, says AP.
The attack came as diplomatic efforts to end the war have failed to make progress. Russia said it targeted military-related facilities in Kyiv and other regions, while Ukrainian authorities reported widespread damage to residential buildings and civilian infrastructure across the capital.
At the same time, Ukraine said it had struck another major Russian oil refinery and a railway bridge used by Russian forces.
Explosions echoed across Kyiv through the night after air raid warnings sent residents into shelters, including underground metro stations. By first light, emergency workers were searching through the ruins of collapsed and fire-damaged apartment blocks for survivors and victims.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 17 people had been killed and more than 90 wounded. Damage was recorded at 30 sites across the city, largely affecting homes and civilian infrastructure, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said around 20 residential buildings were damaged.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described it as a “night of horror” in the Ukrainian capital. He warned that the death toll could rise as rescue operations continued.
Residents described the scale of the bombardment. Serhii Budko, 24, told The Associated Press that three or four ballistic missiles struck his district. “We were inside the shelter and felt the shelter shaking — the ceiling and floor, everything,” he said.
Authorities said people became trapped inside a damaged nine-storey residential building in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district. In the Darnytskyi district, six storeys of another nine-storey building collapsed following the strikes.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had used “high-precision long-range weapons” and drones against military-industrial facilities, fuel and energy complexes in Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as military airfield infrastructure in four other parts of Ukraine.
It also released a list of what it said were successfully hit targets, including facilities involved in manufacturing and assembling Ukrainian drones, missiles and related components.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, had reported the results of the “massive retaliatory strike” to President Vladimir Putin. Peskov insisted the attacks were directed “exclusively against military or military-linked targets”.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of striking civilian areas throughout the war. According to the United Nations, more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 74 missiles, including 24 ballistic missiles, alongside 496 drones of various types during the overnight assault. While Ukraine has steadily improved its ability to intercept drones, officials say ballistic missiles remain far more difficult to stop.
Sybiha again appealed to partner countries to accelerate deliveries of additional Patriot air defence systems and missiles, saying they provide the most effective protection against ballistic threats.
He rejected Moscow’s justification that the attacks were retaliation, arguing Ukraine was exercising its right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter while Russia remained the aggressor.
Ukraine said its own overnight operations targeted one of Russia’s largest oil refineries in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, igniting a fire.
The General Staff also said Ukrainian forces struck a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, describing it as an important route used by Russian troops to transport personnel, weapons and military supplies.
Moscow has linked its latest attacks to Ukraine’s increasingly frequent long-range strikes on Russian civilian infrastructure, particularly oil refineries. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described those operations as a 40-day blitz, while Ukrainian officials say they are intended to pressure Putin into negotiations.
Western analysts say Ukraine’s expanding drone campaign has disrupted Russian supply lines, pinned down troops and damaged oil infrastructure.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Russia’s spring-summer 2026 offensive had so far failed to achieve operationally significant gains and that its rate of advance in June was only a fraction of that recorded in June 2025.
