Kyiv: Russia hammered Kyiv in an 11-hour drone and missile attack overnight into Thursday morning, killing at least 18 civilians in the capital and injuring more than 90 others in what Moscow said was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities.
Loud explosions shook the Ukrainian capital for hours overnight, with many residents taking shelter in subway stations after authorities issued air raid warnings. Emergency crews continued searching through the rubble of collapsed and charred apartment buildings for survivors and victims as dawn broke.
Russia's Defence Ministry said in a statement that the deadly bombardment was in response to Ukraine's long-range strikes, which it claimed had caused severe fuel shortages and increased pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine's increasingly frequent and large-scale attacks — described by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a 40-day blitz — have particularly targeted Russian oil refineries, contributing to a fuel crisis that has frustrated Russians more than four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
Ukrainian officials say they are trying to force Putin to the negotiating table, but so far, Moscow's response has been to intensify its attacks.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war, most recently by the Trump administration, have failed to produce results. Putin believes time is on his side, that Western support for Ukraine will gradually weaken and that Ukraine's resistance will eventually collapse under sustained strategic bombing, according to Western analysts.
Ukraine's top diplomat calls it a 'night of horror'
The attack killed 18 people in Kyiv, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said. More than 90 others were injured, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described it as a "night of horror" in the capital.
Damage was reported at 30 locations across the city, primarily affecting residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said around 20 residential buildings were damaged.
Flashes from exploding drones and missiles lit up the night sky as loud explosions echoed across Kyiv. Tracers fired by air defence systems streaked across the sky while thick black smoke billowed above the city.
Kyiv resident Serhii Budko said three or four ballistic missiles struck his district.
"We were inside the shelter and felt it shaking — the ceiling, the floor, everything," the 24-year-old told The Associated Press.
In Kyiv's Desnianskyi district, residents were trapped inside a damaged nine-storey apartment building. In the Darnytskyi district, six floors of another nine-storey residential building collapsed.
Russia's Chief of the General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reported the results of the "massive retaliatory strike" to Putin, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Peskov claimed the bombardment targeted "exclusively military or military-linked targets."
However, Russia's aerial attacks on Ukraine have repeatedly struck civilian areas. According to the United Nations, more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since the war began.
Sybiha said in April that domestic production now meets up to 75 per cent of Ukraine's military needs and accounts for up to 95 per cent of its long-range strikes against Russia. The locations of the weapons factories remain secret.
Elsewhere, in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region, a Russian guided bomb strike killed a seven-year-old girl and injured four other members of her family, including an 11-year-old girl, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said.
Ukraine urges allies to strengthen air defences
According to Russia's Defence Ministry, the attack used "high-precision long-range weapons" and drones against military-industrial facilities, fuel and energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as military airfields in four other regions of Ukraine.
The ministry also published a list of targets it claimed to have struck, including facilities involved in manufacturing and assembling Ukrainian drones, missiles and related components.
Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 74 missiles, including 24 ballistic missiles, along with 496 drones of various types during the attack.
Ukraine's air defence capabilities have improved significantly throughout the war, particularly in intercepting drones. However, ballistic missiles remain much more difficult to stop. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly urged Western allies to provide additional Patriot missile defence systems, which offer the country's best protection against such threats.
Sybiha again appealed to partner countries not to delay decisions on supplying more air defence systems and interceptor missiles.
He rejected Russia's justification that the strikes were retaliation for Ukrainian attacks, arguing that Ukraine was exercising its right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter, while Russia remained the aggressor.
Sybiha also warned on X that the death toll could rise as rescue operations continue.
Ukraine strikes another Russian oil refinery
Ukraine's General Staff said its forces struck one of Russia's largest oil refineries overnight in the Nizhny Novgorod region, east of Moscow, triggering a fire.
The military also said Ukrainian forces struck a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region. According to the General Staff, the bridge was being used by Russian forces to transport troops, weapons and military supplies.
Western analysts say Ukraine's increasingly effective drone campaign — which has disrupted Russian supply lines, damaged oil infrastructure and pinned down Russian troops — has significantly altered the dynamics of the war.
"Russia's spring-summer 2026 offensive has failed to achieve operationally significant gains thus far, and Russian forces' rate of advance in June 2026 was only a fraction of what they achieved in June 2025," the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment released late Wednesday.
