A wave of coordinated Russian missile and drone strikes targeting multiple regions across Ukraine overnight Wednesday into Thursday has left at least eight civilians dead and dozens more injured, marking the latest escalation in Moscow’s nearly weekly large-scale bombardment campaign that gained intensity over the summer months.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the breadth of the assault, noting targets stretched from the capital Kyiv and its surrounding suburbs to eastern cities including Dnipro and Kharkiv, and across western Ukraine including Lviv. In total, Russia launched more than 70 missiles—many of which were short-range ballistic missiles, which are difficult to intercept—and over 280 attack drones in the single overnight operation. Ukrainian air defense forces successfully intercepted more than 260 of the drones, a feat Zelenskyy called extraordinary given the persistent shortage of advanced air defense systems and missiles supplied by international partners.
“Our warriors are accomplishing truly incredible things, demonstrating a very high level of professionalism,” Zelenskyy stated. “This Russian terror once again proves that protection against the Russian missile threat is the most important task when it comes to saving the lives of our people.”
The deadliest single attack unfolded in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, where regional military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha confirmed six civilians were killed and 10 more injured. Among the fatalities were three children: a 6-year-old girl, an 11-year-old boy, and a 17-year-old boy, all killed in an attack on a residential neighborhood in Kryvyi Rih. Zelenskyy later confirmed the children’s parents were also killed in the same strike, while two additional children were pulled alive from the rubble of their destroyed home.
“It was an ordinary home, blown into smithereens by a ballistic missile,” Zelenskyy said. He added that delays and shortages in deliveries of anti-ballistic missile defense systems from international allies directly enabled the level of destruction and loss of life seen in the attack, reiterating that accelerating defense support is critical to protecting Ukrainian civilians.
Adjacent to Dnipropetrovsk, in the central Poltava region, a drone strike targeting private sector warehouses killed one civilian, regional governor Vitalii Diakivnych reported. A separate attack on a delivery hub sparked a large fire that was quickly contained by emergency response teams, with no additional casualties reported at that site.
In western Ukraine’s Lviv region, which has increasingly become a target of Russian strikes in recent months, rescue operations continued through Thursday morning after an early morning strike around 4:45 a.m. Local military administration head Maksym Kozytskyi reported the number of injured rose to 30, while Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi confirmed two multi-story residential buildings were heavily damaged. More than 20 additional homes, a local school, and two kindergartens also suffered damage, and multiple children were among the wounded, with one child hospitalized for serious injuries.
In the capital Kyiv, a 31-year-old civilian was killed and two more injured when Russian ballistic missiles struck residential areas, Ukrainian national police confirmed. The attack damaged multiple apartment buildings, a local market, vehicle storage garages, and private cars. Just outside the capital, in the Kyiv region’s Brovary district, acting regional governor Ruslan Oliinyk reported five additional injuries, including a child and two women.
In Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry issued its standard statement framing the strikes as a targeted attack on Ukrainian military infrastructure, claiming the operation hit air bases, arms production facilities, military telecommunications nodes, and logistics hubs across the regions attacked. The ministry also claimed Russian forces hit a military cargo ship in Ukraine’s Pivdennyi port and two additional vessels near Odesa, and that Russian air defenses downed 258 Ukrainian drones launched overnight in cross-border strikes.
Cross-border attacks on Russian territory were confirmed by local officials, who reported fires at two warehouses operated by Wildberries, Russia’s largest domestic online retailer. Penza Governor Oleg Melnichenko said a Wildberries depot in his region caught fire, leaving one person injured and forcing the evacuation of more than 200 employees. A second Wildberries warehouse in Sarapul, located in the Udmurtia republic roughly 600 miles east of Moscow, was also struck by a Ukrainian drone and caught fire, with all employees evacuated safely. The strikes mark the latest in a string of attacks on Wildberries facilities across Russia that have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.