Kyiv hit by 'most massive attack' as Russian drones and missiles kill 18, injure 90

Russian forces launched a major drone and missile attack on Kyiv overnight, killing 18 people, in what the city's mayor has described as the "most massive attack" on the Ukrainian capital.

Vitaly Klitschko declared Friday a day of mourning and said around 90 people were injured. He said an ambulance station was among the places hit in the strikes.

Although previous attacks have killed more people or seen more weapons deployed, this latest barrage hit locations over a very wide area of Kyiv.

Several neighbourhoods were evacuated as strikes rocked buildings throughout the city, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russia was preparing an attack.

Moscow said its forces hit what they called military plants in retaliation against attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russia would "continue to increase pressure on the Kyiv regime in order to achieve our set goals".

Ukraine accused Moscow of targeting civilian areas and said it would be wrong to equate the actions of the "aggressor and a country defending itself".

Children were among the "significant number" of casualties, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv's military administration, said.

"The enemy is once again deliberately targeting residential areas and killing civilians," he said early on Thursday.

Among those hit by the strikes was a high-rise apartment building with part of the building blown off in south-east Kyiv.

In a video posted on Telegram, Klitschko said rescuers are trying to find, among others, a 15-year-old girl and her family.

The BBC team in Kyiv heard loud explosions through the night. By 03:30 local time, we had counted 10 significant strikes, with one major fire in the city centre and multiple other blazes in the distance spotted.

Tracer fire from air defence systems kept lighting up the sky, followed by explosions.

On Thursday morning, daylight brought clearer images of a crater which appeared to be caused by the impact of explosions.

Smouldering cars, buildings and infrastructure could also be seen next to bombed-out debris.

Multiple fires broke out across the city and damage was reported at an ambulance station in the city, which left at least one person critically injured.

Firefighters were also dousing a blaze destroying a hotel on a central boulevard.

The attack on Kyiv lasted more than 11 hours and came in several waves starting with a drone strike on Kyiv's historic quarter, setting off a fire in a hotel in the city centre.

At 01:00, dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles were fired. A brief lull preceded another dozen of Kh-101 cruise missiles at 03:00, followed by a swarm of drones which targeted the capital until dawn.

Residents of Kyiv who have lived through four-and-a-half years of war say they have perceived a change in the pattern of Russia's assaults on the capital over the last two months. Attacks may now happen less frequently - albeit still every few days - but last longer, and seem more powerful and widespread.

Ukrainian military experts described the latest barrage as one of the most challenging assaults for the country's air defences in recent months.

Aviation expert Bohdan Dolintsev told Ukrainian media that Russia's technique of using multiple types of weapons within the same time window, and wearing down Ukraine's defences creates an exceptionally complex challenge for Ukraine's air defence systems.

Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched 74 missiles and 496 drones overnight, mainly targeting the capital.

While the country's air defences were able to repel most of these, 25 ballistics missiles and 12 drones struck 33 locations.

Zelensky urged the US to grant licences to manufacture Patriot air defence missiles, saying these supplies were "an absolute and critical priority".

Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called on Ukraine's partners to send more air defence systems, saying the country needed "not only words of condemnation but concrete action to stop Russian terror".

He posted on X that Russia had targeted residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, and called on partners to increase sanctions on Russia.

On Wednesday, Zelensky cut short his visit to Dublin after he said fresh intelligence had emerged suggesting that Moscow was planning to strike Ukraine.

"I urge our people to be especially careful, to protect themselves, their children, and, of course, their families," he said.

He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin "has been preparing this massive strike against Ukraine for some time now".

Russian troops recently advanced into the city of Kostyantynivka, one of Ukraine's last key bulwarks in the east. If Moscow secures the city, it would provide a gateway to the entire Donbas region.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian commanders say they have recaptured more territory this year than they have lost, disrupting Moscow's crucial supply lines between the Russian border and occupied Crimea.

The ground war has otherwise stalled for months with each side's troops largely entrenched in their positions.

Russia controls approximately one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, mostly seized in the first few months of its full-scale invasion in February, 2022.