Russia launched an overnight missile and drone assault that continued into Thursday morning and struck nine Ukrainian cities. Explosions sounded across Kyiv as the operation combined ballistic missiles with fast jet-powered drones designed to complicate interception.
Ukraine is short of United States-made Patriot missiles capable of countering ballistic threats. Ukrainian officials say Moscow accumulates stocks and conducts large barrages every few days in an effort to exhaust defenses through volume, while European governments have promised additional air-defense support.
Russia's Defense Ministry described the attack as massive and said it targeted military-linked industrial sites, refineries, logistics centers and port infrastructure. Ukrainian authorities said civilian areas were also damaged and reported two deaths, including a 78-year-old woman in Zaporizhzhia, with at least 14 people wounded elsewhere.
Four districts of Kyiv sustained damage to residential buildings, a school and a medical facility, although city police reported no casualties there. Ukraine's air force said seven Russian ballistic missiles were shot down or suppressed, without explaining the interception method.
The attack also reached private distribution networks and the power system. Drones destroyed depots used by a toy retailer and a confectionery company and damaged an electronics warehouse, while four glide bombs destroyed generating equipment at the Kherson combined heat and power plant and forced it offline.
Odesa endured more than seven hours of attacks that damaged a 16-story apartment building, two educational facilities and a grain elevator in the export port region. Industrial and energy sites were struck in Poltava, and disruptions across the network delayed some trains by more than 17 hours.
The regional impact extended beyond Ukraine when Moldova said five drones entered its airspace overnight without identifying who launched them. Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for promised European assistance to be supplemented with ballistic-defense packages purchased from the United States.
The exchange remained two-sided. Ukraine said air-launched missiles hit Russian command posts near Donetsk, while Moscow claimed it intercepted 267 Ukrainian drones across 14 regions and surrounding waters; an Ozon logistics site in Ufa was attacked and another facility in Orenburg was briefly evacuated during an alert.
