In a devastating wave of overnight Russian drone attacks across Ukraine, at least 28 civilians have been killed and dozens more wounded, triggering new urgent calls from Kyiv for strengthened international support against Moscow’s aggression. The deadliest strike hit the Bucha district of Kyiv region, where regional governor Tymur Tkachenko confirmed 27 fatalities and 42 injured people — including four children. As of Saturday morning, emergency response teams had already evacuated 381 residents from damaged and at-risk neighborhoods, with search and rescue operations still underway to locate survivors trapped in destroyed residential structures.
In a separate strike targeting the Boryspil district of Kyiv region, Tkachenko confirmed the death of a 14-year-old civilian, denouncing the attack as one more addition to the long list of casualties from what he labeled “Russian terror.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released an official statement extending his deepest condolences to the families of all those killed in the attacks. He noted that more than 300 first responders have been deployed across strike zones to conduct rescue operations and assess structural damage. Beyond the Kyiv region, Zelensky confirmed that additional overnight Russian strikes targeted Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia regions, expanding the scope of the assault across multiple parts of the country.
In his message posted to the Telegram messaging platform, Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine cannot repel these regular large-scale drone attacks alone. He expressed gratitude to global partners that have provided military support packages and imposed harsh economic sanctions on Russia to curb its war capabilities. The Ukrainian military announced that its air defense systems successfully intercepted and shot down 233 Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during the overnight assault, preventing an even higher civilian death toll.
The latest round of attacks comes amid a steady escalation of cross-border strikes between Russia and Ukraine in recent months. Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian economic infrastructure in its own operations, while Russia has ramped up its drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian and energy sites. In the 24 hours preceding Saturday’s strikes, Moscow reported Ukrainian attacks on its own Belgorod and Rostov regions. Rostov governor Yuri Slusar confirmed that seven people were injured in those strikes, mirroring the pattern of rising civilian casualties on both sides of the ongoing conflict.