Russia launched its largest-ever barrage on Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least 21 people and injuring 85 others in an hours-long drone and missile assault that tore through apartment buildings across the Ukrainian capital, officials said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko described it as the enemy’s most massive attack on the city since the start of the war. The assault, which lasted roughly 11 hours, saw Ukraine’s air force report that Russia fired nearly 500 drones and more than 70 missiles in a combined strike, with 33 projectiles making impact (CNN) despite Ukrainian air defences intercepting most of them.
Emergency crews worked through the rubble of collapsed and burning apartment blocks as dawn broke, with 110 emergency response teams deployed to 59 locations across the city (CNN) . Residents, some with children and pets, sheltered overnight in metro stations as explosions echoed across central and eastern Kyiv.
The Kremlin said the strikes were retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, which have triggered fuel shortages inside Russia. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha rejected that justification, calling it a “night of horror” and insisting Ukraine’s strikes constitute lawful self-defence.
The EU’s top diplomat has proposed new sanctions on Moscow, while President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed calls for more air defence systems, including a request to the United States for licences to manufacture Patriot missiles domestically
