A coordinated wave of Russian missile assaults carried out overnight across Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and its surrounding outskirts has left at least five civilians dead and 23 more wounded, Ukrainian emergency management officials confirmed Thursday. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine (DSNS) labeled the assault a “massive attack” that targeted multiple civilian sites, including multi-story residential apartment buildings and commercial storage warehouses, leaving several structures partially or fully reduced to rubble.
Emergency response teams have been deployed across the affected districts to search for survivors trapped beneath collapsed building debris, with crews already extracting at least one person alive from the wreckage. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that a children’s hospital in the capital suffered damage during the strikes, with shattered window panes and multiple civilian vehicles parked nearby set on fire by blast waves. The Solomyanskyi district, an industrial hub located in Kyiv’s southwest, was also struck by multiple missiles, according to the mayor.
Outside the city boundaries, the Brovary district of the broader Kyiv region recorded one fatality and one additional injury, regional governor Tymur Tkachenko announced. Regional authorities issued public shelter alerts early in the night ahead of the strikes, notifying residents that active air defense operations would be underway across the area. Multiple follow-up missile warnings were issued by local administrative bodies, aligned with alerts from Ukraine’s national air force command.
The strikes severed electrical transmission lines across the region, cutting power to thousands of residential and commercial properties and leaving large swathes of the Kyiv area without power overnight. Utility technicians have launched urgent repair work to restore service to damaged energy infrastructure. Photos from the scene show Kyiv residents seeking shelter in underground spaces to avoid incoming fire, with thick plumes of smoke rising from impact sites across the capital.
This latest attack comes as Kyiv has endured almost daily overnight assaults over recent weeks, with some waves of strikes resulting in dozens of fatalities and severe casualties. The escalation in Russian attacks follows a string of recent missile and drone strikes targeting Russian territory that have raised pressure on Moscow’s government to enter peace negotiations to end the conflict, which has now stretched into its fifth year. This week alone, two separate attacks on Russian soil have killed at least 16 people, including one child.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and as of the latest frontline reports, Russian forces occupy approximately one-fifth of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, with most occupied land concentrated along the country’s eastern border regions.