Russia hammered Kyiv in an 11-hour drone and missile attack overnight into Thursday morning, killing at the very least 17 civilians and injuring scores more in what Moscow said was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities which have caused severe fuel shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
Loud explosions shook the Ukrainian capital for hours through the night, with many individuals sheltering in subway stations after authorities issued air raid warnings. Emergency crews were still digging through the rubble of collapsed and charred apartment buildings in the hunt for victims as dawn broke.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a press release that the deadly bombardment was in response to Ukraine’s long-range strikes on its civilian infrastructure. Ukraine’s increasingly frequent and large-scale attacks — described by Zelenskyy as a 40-day blitz — have especially targeted oil refineries, causing a fuel crisis that has frustrated Russians, greater than 4 years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Ukrainian officials say they try to force Putin to the negotiating table.
Diplomatic efforts to finish the war, most recently by the Trump administration, haven’t produced results. Putin thinks that point is on his side, that Western support will peter out and that Ukraine’s resistance will eventually collapse under pressure from strategic bombing, Western analysts say.
Ukraine’s top diplomat says it was a ‘night of horror’ in Kyiv
The attack killed 17 people in Kyiv and injured greater than 90 others, in line with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a “night of horror” within the capital.
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Damage was recorded in 30 locations across town, mainly residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, in line with Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Some 20 residential buildings were damaged, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
Flashes from exploding drones and missiles lit up the night, and loud booms echoed through Kyiv. Tracers from air defense fire streaked through the air as an enormous pall of black smoke rose into the sky.
Kyiv resident Serhii Budko said three or 4 ballistic missiles hit his district of town. “We were contained in the shelter and felt the shelter shaking — the ceiling and floor, every part,” the 24-year-old told The Associated Press.
In Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district, people were trapped inside a damaged nine-story residential constructing, and within the Darnytskyi district six levels of a nine-story constructing collapsed.
Russia’s General Staff chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov reported the outcomes of the “massive retaliatory strike” to Putin, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
The bombardment was “exclusively against military or military-linked targets,” Peskov said.
Russia’s aerial attacks on Ukraine have repeatedly hit civilian areas. Greater than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed within the war, in line with the United Nations.
Sybiha said in April that domestic production meets as much as 75 per cent of Ukraine’s military needs and accounts for as much as 95% of long-range strikes against Russia. The placement of the factories making those weapons is secret.
Ukrainian officials urge countries to offer more air defenses
The attack used “high-precision long-range weapons” and drones on “military industry facilities and fuel and energy complexes in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, in addition to military airfield infrastructure in 4 other regions of Ukraine,” the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement said.
It published a listing of targets it said the barrage hit, mostly plants manufacturing and assembling Ukrainian drones, missiles and components.
Russia fired 74 missiles, 24 of them ballistic, and 496 drones of assorted types within the attack, Ukraine’s air force said.
Ukraine’s air defenses have improved throughout the war, especially in countering Russian drones. But ballistic missiles are harder to stop, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly pleaded with partner countries to produce more Patriot missile systems that supply the very best protection.
Sybiha urged countries to not delay decisions on supplying air defense systems and missiles.
He rejected any Russian attempts to justify the strikes as retaliation for Ukraine’s long-range attacks, saying Ukraine was exercising its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter while Russia remained the aggressor.
Sybiha said on X that the death toll may rise as rescue teams proceed their work.
Ukraine attacks one other Russian oil refinery
Ukrainian forces struck one in all Russia’s largest oil refineries overnight within the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, starting a hearth, Ukraine’s General Staff said.
Also, Ukrainian forces struck a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River within the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, it said. The bridge was utilized by Russian forces to move personnel, weapons and military supplies, in line with the General Staff.
Ukraine’s recent success with drone strikes that keep Russian troops pinned down on the front line, disrupt Russian supply lines within the rear and damage oil facilities have brought a major change within the war, Western analysts say.
“Russia’s spring-summer 2026 offensive has failed to realize operationally significant gains up to now, and Russian forces’ rate of advance in June 2026 (was) a fraction of the speed of advance that Russian forces achieved in June 2025,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an assessment late Wednesday.
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