Russian forces launched a major overnight missile and drone attack across Ukraine, killing at least 21 civilians, including four children, and wounding around 60 as Kyiv struggles to counter ballistic missiles and newer high-speed drones.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Russia launched one of its heaviest recent aerial attacks on Ukraine overnight into Wednesday, striking Kyiv and more than a dozen other regions and killing at least 21 civilians, including four children, according to Ukrainian officials.
The assault came one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that intelligence services believed Moscow was preparing a “massive” attack.
Despite that warning, Ukraine was unable to stop all of the incoming weapons, underscoring continued shortages in high-end air-defense ammunition and the increasing challenge posed by Russia’s ballistic missiles and newer jet-powered drones.
The deadliest strike hit Pryluky in the northern Chernihiv region, where a missile destroyed a multistory residential building.
Authorities said at least 15 people were killed there, including four children, and roughly 50 others were wounded.
Rescue crews searched the wreckage for survivors as heavy machinery removed sections of the collapsed structure.
Deaths were also reported in Kyiv, Kremenchuk and Oleksandriia.
In Kremenchuk, two people were killed and seven injured, according to Vitalii Diakivnych, head of the regional military administration.
“That is exactly what the enemy is counting on. For us to be afraid to fall asleep. To let our children out of our sight. To plan anything. So that everyone thinks: next time it could be my address,” Diakivnych said.
Zelenskyy described the assault as deliberately timed and unusually severe.
“The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively,” he said.
The attack coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 74th birthday.
Reuters reported that Zelenskyy said Russia launched about 70 missiles during the barrage, many of them ballistic.
Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted just over 80% of 46 jet-powered drones used in the attack, a substantially higher interception rate than in recent weeks.
Ballistic missiles remain a far more difficult problem.
“Russian ballistic missiles remain the greatest challenge. And air defense packages for us right now are a vital necessity,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine has been searching internationally for additional Patriot interceptor missiles, which are in short supply amid competing demand from the Iran war and other conflicts.
Without sufficient Patriot ammunition, Ukraine has limited ability to intercept some of Russia’s most dangerous ballistic weapons.
Many residents of Kyiv spent the night in underground metro stations as warnings spread that a large-scale strike was imminent.
Explosions were reported throughout the capital, where Russian missiles and drones targeted infrastructure and other sites.
Emergency power restrictions were introduced in several regions after damage to energy facilities.
The attacks also struck industrial and transportation infrastructure in Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, while residential buildings were damaged in Kremenchuk.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces carried out a “massive strike” against military-industrial facilities across Ukraine using high-precision land-, sea- and air-launched weapons as well as drones.
Moscow said the targets included facilities involved in producing and storing missiles and unmanned aircraft.
Russia also said port and ship-repair installations in the Odesa region and vessels carrying military cargo had been targeted.
Ukraine and Russia routinely dispute the nature and military significance of targets hit during long-range attacks.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen accused Moscow of deliberately targeting civilian life.
“Russia is pursuing a deliberate strategy of terror,” she said. “Trying to make daily life impossible for Ukrainians who want to live in peace.”
The latest attack comes more than four and a half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Ground fighting remains largely concentrated along an extended front in eastern and southern Ukraine, while both sides have increasingly relied on long-range drones and missiles to strike infrastructure far behind enemy lines.
Ukraine has responded to Russian strikes by repeatedly targeting oil refineries, fuel depots, military bases and logistics sites inside Russia.
Zelenskyy said Wednesday that Ukrainian forces struck four targets in Russia over the previous 24 hours, including two oil facilities and a military training ground in the Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions.
Russian officials did not immediately comment on those claims.
Zelenskyy also suggested Ukrainian forces had struck a vessel in the Black Sea.
He posted images appearing to show a tanker burning near the Russian resort city of Sochi.
The images could not immediately be independently verified.
Unconfirmed Russian media reports said the vessel was carrying oil from Novorossiysk toward India and may have been attacked by Ukrainian sea drones.
Ukraine has increasingly focused its long-range campaign on Russia’s energy industry, arguing that oil revenues help finance Moscow’s war effort.
Russian officials have accused Kyiv of trying to damage civilian economic infrastructure.
The two countries are now engaged in an expanding aerial war even as their armies remain largely deadlocked along much of the front.
Russia has increased the frequency and complexity of missile and drone attacks, including the use of high-speed unmanned aircraft designed to make interception more difficult.
Ukraine, meanwhile, is developing new domestic interceptors and long-range strike weapons while pressing its Western allies for additional air-defense systems.
Zelenskyy said last week that Ukraine had used its first domestically produced ballistic missile in combat and is developing longer-range weapons capable of reaching deeper into Russia.
Peace efforts led by the United States have so far produced no major breakthrough.
Low-level technical talks remain under discussion, but both sides continue large-scale military operations and neither has indicated that it is prepared to abandon its core war aims.
For Ukraine, Wednesday’s attack again highlighted the immediate importance of air defense.
Even with advance intelligence that a major barrage was coming, Ukrainian forces were unable to prevent heavy civilian casualties, particularly from ballistic missiles.
The destruction in Pryluky became the clearest example of that vulnerability, with an apartment building reduced to rubble and four children among those killed.
As rescue operations continued Wednesday, Ukrainian officials warned that the campaign of long-range strikes was likely to remain central to the war, making additional air-defense ammunition and interceptors one of Kyiv’s most urgent military needs.
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