Russia launched a major overnight drone and missile assault on Kyiv, injuring at least 23 people, damaging railway infrastructure, and igniting fires across several neighbourhoods in the Ukrainian capital, officials said early on Friday.
Air raid sirens wailed through the night in an attack that lasted over eight hours, with multiple waves of drones and missiles reported. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia had launched a total of 539 drones and 11 missiles across Ukrainian territory in one of the largest overnight assaults in recent months.
“The main target of the strikes was the capital of Ukraine, the city of Kyiv!” the Air Force posted on Telegram.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 14 of those injured had been hospitalised. He confirmed that damage had been reported in six of Kyiv’s 10 districts, on both sides of the Dnipro River. In the Holosiivskyi district, falling drone debris set a medical facility on fire.
The air assault is the latest in a growing number of Russian strikes on Kyiv, which have increased in frequency and scale in recent weeks, inflicting some of the deadliest damage since the war began.
As air defences engaged incoming drones, residents shared harrowing footage on social media showing people running for shelter, firefighters tackling blazes in darkness, and shattered buildings with blown-out windows and facades.
Ukraine’s state-owned railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, reported that rail infrastructure in the capital had been hit, causing the diversion of several passenger trains and delays across the network.
According to the Air Force, Ukraine managed to shoot down 478 of the aerial weapons launched. Additional airstrikes were reported in at least eight regions across the country, involving nine missiles and 63 drones.
In eastern Ukraine, five people were killed late on Thursday in and around Pokrovsk, a frontline city that has been under sustained Russian bombardment for months.
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts showed little promise of resolution. U.S. President Donald Trump said a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday produced “no progress at all” towards ending the war. The Kremlin, in its response, reiterated that it remained focused on addressing the “root causes” of the conflict.
Kyiv warned that a recent decision by Washington to pause some critical weapons shipments could significantly weaken Ukraine’s defence capabilities amid intensifying airstrikes and renewed Russian advances on the battlefield.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday he hoped to speak with Trump on Friday regarding the stalled arms supply.
Both Kyiv and Moscow continue to deny targeting civilians. However, tens of thousands of civilians—mostly Ukrainian—have died since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
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