A large Russian aerial assault killed at least 15 people in Kyiv and eight more in the surrounding region, while Ukrainian officials said a shortage of interceptors left them unable to destroy any of the 23 ballistic missiles aimed at the capital.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched 68 missiles of different types and 351 attack drones. Ukraine's air force reported destroying or suppressing 37 missiles and 326 drones, but its success was limited to cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft. Ballistic weapons penetrated the defences.
In Kyiv, three large apartment blocks partially collapsed and some residential buildings were struck directly. Emergency teams used cranes and search dogs to work through unstable concrete, while helicopters carried water from the Dnipro River to fires. At one damaged block in the Podilskyi district, relatives were believed trapped inside.
The State Emergency Service recorded 56 injured people in the capital, including seven children. Authorities in the wider Kyiv region reported another 48 wounded. The scale of continuing search work meant initial death figures could change as crews reached more of the ruins.
Zelenskyy urged Ukraine's partners to use a NATO summit in Ankara to commit more air-defence support. He singled out Patriot missiles, arguing that available systems in allied inventories could protect civilians if transferred. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Ukraine's urgent requirement for additional defence against aerial attack would be discussed at the meeting.
The overnight barrage was Kyiv's second major attack within a week. A previous assault on Thursday killed 30 people, according to the supplied report. Ukraine accused Russia of intentionally striking civilian areas. Moscow said its earlier targets were military and energy sites selected in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian power infrastructure. The packet did not independently establish the intended target of each missile.
Ukraine continued its own long-distance drone campaign. It said it struck three Russian refineries, including a plant at Omsk more than 2,400 kilometres away, and temporarily disrupted power in Russian-occupied Sevastopol. Russia claimed 613 of 625 Ukrainian drones were brought down.
Those parallel operations did not reduce the immediate imbalance over Kyiv: Ukrainian defences could stop many slower threats but lacked enough capacity against ballistic missiles. The result was visible in collapsed homes and high casualties despite a substantial overall interception rate.
The attack linked battlefield technology directly to diplomacy. Ukraine was not simply requesting more weapons in general; it sought a scarce class of interceptor before Russia could repeat a pattern that existing systems had failed to contain.
