Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv and around a dozen other Ukrainian regions overnight into Wednesday, killing at least 21 civilians, including four children, and injuring around 60, Ukrainian officials said.
The attack came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that intelligence indicated Russia was preparing a “massive” strike.
Despite anticipating the attack, Ukraine was unable to fully repel the barrage, which coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 74th birthday.
The casualties and destruction highlighted Ukraine’s difficulties in intercepting Russian ballistic missiles and newly deployed jet-powered drones amid Moscow’s increasingly intense aerial campaign.
Ukraine has been facing shortages of ammunition for its US-made Patriot air defense systems, limiting its ability to counter Russian ballistic weapons. Kyiv is also racing to develop a new generation of interceptors capable of engaging Russia’s high-speed, jet-powered drones.
Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a sustained long-range air war while their ground forces remain largely deadlocked, more than four and a half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the latest attacks, saying Russia was pursuing “a deliberate strategy of terror” aimed at making daily life impossible for Ukrainians seeking peace.
A Russian strike destroyed an apartment building in Pryluky in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, killing 15 people, including four children, and injuring around 50, according to local authorities.
Deaths were also reported in three other Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Zelenskyy said.
“The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively,” he said in a social media post.
In Kremenchuk in the Poltava region, two people were killed and seven others injured, according to Vitalii Diakivnych, head of the regional military administration. A rescue operation was still underway.
Diakivnych said the attacks were intended to spread fear among civilians.
“That is exactly what the enemy is counting on. For us to be afraid to fall asleep. To let our children out of our sight. To plan anything. So that everyone thinks: next time it could be my address,” he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces carried out a “massive” overnight strike targeting industrial facilities involved in producing and storing missiles and drones across Ukraine.
It also claimed that port and ship-repair facilities in the southern Odesa region, along with vessels carrying cargo for the Ukrainian military, were hit.
Ukraine strikes Russian oil facilities
Ukraine responded by launching long-range drones and missiles against Russian oil refineries and storage facilities, according to Zelenskyy.
He said Ukrainian forces targeted two oil facilities and a training ground in Russia’s Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions.
Russian officials did not immediately comment on the claims.
Zelenskyy also suggested that Ukraine had carried out an attack in the Black Sea, posting images that he said showed an oil tanker on fire near the Russian resort city of Sochi.
The images could not be independently verified.
Some Russian online media outlets also published the images late Tuesday, while unconfirmed reports said the vessel was carrying oil from Novorossiysk to India and had been attacked by Ukrainian sea drones.