Russia Unleashes Massive Overnight Assault on Ukraine, Killing Civilians and Sending Hypersonic Warning to the West

BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA

Russia launched one of its most intense aerial assaults of the war against Ukraine overnight, firing hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a coordinated barrage that killed at least four people in Kyiv and left large parts of the capital without heat or water amid freezing winter temperatures, Ukrainian officials said Friday. The attack also marked only the second known use in the war of Russia’s new nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile, which struck western Ukraine in what Kyiv and its allies described as a deliberate warning to NATO.

The large-scale strike came at a politically sensitive moment, just days after Ukraine and its partners reported progress toward defining long-term security guarantees should a U.S.-led peace agreement emerge. European leaders condemned the assault as a sharp escalation, while senior EU officials said it underscored Moscow’s rejection of diplomacy.

Ukrainian authorities said the overnight barrage targeted multiple regions, with Kyiv bearing the brunt of the damage. Four people were killed in the capital, including an emergency medical worker responding to the strikes, according to the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko. At least 25 people were wounded. Among the injured were four doctors and a police officer who were hit while carrying out rescue and emergency duties.

The attack severely disrupted basic services in Kyiv at a time when temperatures hovered around minus 8 degrees Celsius. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said nearly half of the city’s apartment buildings — about 6,000 in total — were left without heating, while water supplies were also interrupted in several districts. Municipal crews worked through the day to restore power and heat, deploying portable boiler units to hospitals, maternity wards and other critical facilities, city officials said.

Several residential neighborhoods suffered direct damage. In the Desnyanskyi district, a drone crashed onto the roof of a multistory apartment building, while the lower floors of another nearby residential block were damaged. In the Dnipro district, debris from a downed drone ignited a fire in a multistory building, forcing residents to flee. Windows were blown out across wide areas of the city.

One Kyiv resident, 45-year-old Dmytro Karpenko, said he rushed outside after seeing his neighbor’s house burning. “What Russia is doing shows they do not want peace,” he said. “People are suffering, people are dying, and people still want peace.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack also damaged the Qatari Embassy in Kyiv, calling it a troubling signal given Qatar’s role in mediating prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia. He urged a “clear and strong response” from the international community, particularly from the United States, which he said Moscow continues to take seriously.

Ukraine’s Security Service said it had identified debris from the Oreshnik hypersonic missile in the Lviv region in western Ukraine. Investigators said the missile was launched from Russia’s Kapustin Yar test range near the Caspian Sea and struck civilian infrastructure. The Lviv region lies close to NATO territory and is a critical transit area for Western military assistance entering Ukraine from neighboring Poland.

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the strike but described it as retaliation for what it claimed was a Ukrainian drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences last month. Both Kyiv and U.S. President Donald Trump have rejected that claim. Moscow did not specify the missile’s exact target, though Russian media and military bloggers reported it struck an underground natural gas storage facility in western Ukraine.

Putin has previously touted the Oreshnik missile as virtually unstoppable, saying it travels at speeds of up to Mach 10 and cannot be intercepted by existing missile defense systems. He has also warned that multiple Oreshnik missiles armed with conventional warheads could inflict destruction comparable to that of a nuclear strike, and has threatened to use the weapon against countries supporting Ukrainian strikes inside Russian territory.

Ukrainian intelligence officials say the missile carries six warheads, each containing six submunitions. Russia first used the Oreshnik in combat against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024. Military analysts say its deployment is designed not only to damage infrastructure but also to amplify psychological pressure on Ukrainian civilians and intimidate Western governments backing Kyiv.

The attack coincided with renewed strain in relations between Moscow and Washington following Russia’s condemnation of the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker in the North Atlantic. It also came as Trump signaled support for a sweeping new sanctions package aimed at further weakening Russia’s economy, even as Moscow has offered no public indication it is prepared to soften its demands on Ukraine.

European leaders reacted swiftly. The heads of government of Britain, France and Germany said they discussed the strikes and agreed they were “escalatory and unacceptable.” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the launch of the Oreshnik missile was intended as a warning not only to Ukraine, but to Europe and the United States as well. “Russia’s response to diplomacy is more missiles and more destruction,” she said.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Kyiv would seek urgent international action in response to the use of the hypersonic missile, including calling an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council and consultations within the Ukraine-NATO Council. He warned that a strike so close to NATO and EU borders posed a serious threat to European security and tested the resolve of the transatlantic alliance.

At the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV appealed for renewed efforts to end the war, urging the international community to intensify its push for peace. Addressing ambassadors, the pontiff called for an immediate ceasefire and meaningful dialogue to halt the suffering of civilians.

As rescue crews cleared debris and emergency repairs continued across Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said the scale and timing of the attack reinforced their view that Moscow is seeking to escalate pressure militarily while shaping the diplomatic battlefield. For residents of the capital, the focus remained on surviving another night of war as winter deepens and the conflict shows no sign of abating.