A large Russian missile and drone barrage struck Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine overnight, destroying part of a residential building in the capital and killing at least 16 people, according to Ukrainian emergency authorities. Two children were among the dead.
The casualty count increased as rescue crews worked through the day in Kyiv's Darnytskyi district. An earlier Associated Press report, based on local authorities, put the toll at nine, with dozens injured and about 20 people believed missing. By late evening, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said 16 people had been killed and 57 injured, including 27 who were receiving hospital care, according to Ukrainska Pravda. The changing figures reflected an active search operation rather than contradictory accounts of separate attacks.
The strike damaged a nine-storey apartment block, collapsing an entrance and destroying all 18 apartments in the affected section, officials told the Associated Press. Emergency personnel carried residents from the site on stretchers and removed slabs of concrete while teams searched for people feared trapped under the debris. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 28 residents had been rescued.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a 12-year-old girl was recovered from the wreckage of a nearby house. Ukraine's emergency service later reported that a second child had died. The BBC reported that a man also died in hospital after being caught in a separate strike at a petrol station. Friday was declared a day of mourning in the capital.
The attack reached beyond one building. Ukrainian officials reported damage in six Kyiv districts, including at residential properties, a school, a veterinary clinic and other infrastructure. The city's water supply was disrupted, and strikes on energy facilities temporarily cut power in Kyiv and 11 other regions, according to the Associated Press, citing Ukraine's grid operator.
Across Ukraine, the scale of the overnight operation was unusually large even by the standards of the war. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched more than 670 drones and 56 missiles, and that more than 180 sites were hit, including over 50 residential buildings. Ukraine's air force said it shot down or jammed 693 airborne targets: 652 drones and 41 missiles. It recorded direct hits by 15 missiles and 23 drones at 24 locations, with debris from intercepted drones falling at another 18 sites.
Zelensky said the overall interception rate was 93%, while the rate for missiles was 73%. Those figures, which came from Ukrainian authorities and could not be independently verified from the supplied material, also highlighted a persistent vulnerability: ballistic and cruise missiles can be harder to stop than many drones. Zelensky renewed his call for additional anti-ballistic systems and interceptor missiles.
Other cities and regions were also affected. Officials reported injuries in Kharkiv, the Kyiv region and Odesa, while Kremenchuk, Bila Tserkva and Sumy were among the places struck, according to the Associated Press. A marked United Nations aid vehicle was hit by drones in two locations while delivering assistance in the Kherson area, Ukraine's foreign minister said; no occupants were injured.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces targeted military-industrial facilities, air bases, fuel depots and transport infrastructure, and claimed that all intended targets were hit. Ukrainian officials, by contrast, emphasized the damage to homes and civilian facilities. The supplied evidence does not independently resolve those competing accounts, but the destruction and casualties at the Kyiv apartment building were documented by reporters and emergency teams at the scene.
The barrage marked a third consecutive day of major Russian aerial attacks following the expiry of a three-day ceasefire. The Associated Press reported that fighting continued during the truce, though at lower intensity and without comparable large aerial operations. A daytime attack on Kyiv the previous day killed at least six people, according to Zelensky, after Russia launched about 800 drones across roughly 20 regions.
The renewed strikes undercut suggestions that the conflict might be nearing an end. Ukrainian leaders argued that the attack demonstrated the need for both stronger air defenses and greater international pressure on Moscow. British Defense Secretary John Healey said the United Kingdom was accelerating air-defense deliveries, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union was preparing a 6 billion euro drone-support package and further sanctions against Russia's war economy.
At the Darnytskyi site, the immediate priority remained the search for survivors and the identification of victims. Ukrainska Pravda reported that 170 rescue workers, three canine teams and 51 pieces of equipment were involved at one stage of the operation. More than 1,500 rescuers and police officers were working across the wider aftermath of the attacks, including nearly 600 in Kyiv, the BBC reported.
The full human cost was still emerging by the end of the event date. Early figures captured only those found in the first hours; the later toll of 16 followed sustained work under unstable rubble. The progression is a reminder that casualty numbers during an active rescue operation are provisional and should be tied to the time and authority reporting them.
