A heavy Russian missile and drone bombardment has killed at least 16 people in and around Kyiv in one of the most intense aerial attacks on Ukraine’s capital since the start of the war.
Vitali Klitschko, the city’s mayor, said homes, a school and a children’s medical centre were among the buildings damaged overnight in an attack that began at about midnight and was continuing into the early afternoon.
Sixteen people were reported killed in the city, officials said, while other authorities said 33 had been injured.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said: “It was a massive attack – the Russians had been preparing for a long time, combining different types of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, aiming to cause as much damage as possible to civilian infrastructure.”
Explosions could be clearly heard from the city centre within minutes of the first warning at 11.51pm on Wednesday, earlier than the normal timing of Russian missile strikes. A further wave of attacks followed after 6am on Thursday, and drone threats continued throughout the morning.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched dozens of ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles and 168 drones in the overnight attack. Later it reported shooting down 41 out of 46 cruise missiles and 145 drones, although none of an unspecified number of high-speed ballistic missiles was intercepted.
A shortage of Patriot interceptors means that Ukraine is struggling to defend itself from attack from high-speed ballistics, which can arrive within minutes of an air raid warning. Earlier this month, the air force decided to stop announcing how many ballistics had been launched, citing security concerns.
Eight people were reported killed in the Solomianskyi district to the west of the centre of the capital. A multistorey apartment building in a residential area was struck and flats on the top floor destroyed, killing two, rescuers said.
An empty building, sometimes used informally as a shelter, in the middle of a car park was destroyed in a strike at about midnight. Nobody was reported killed, though several cars were burnt out and bricks from the building scattered several metres across the open space nearby.
Oleksandr, a car park attendant, was on duty at the time of the attack and escaped with light injuries. The next morning, still shocked, covered in cuts, his shorts torn into strips, he waited by his destroyed booth and said he could not remember what had happened to him immediately after the blast.
Andriy, 57, a driver, said he first heard an explosion close by and was in his vehicle when the strike on the building in the car park took place. He said he believed his life was saved by the tinted plastic sheeting he had stuck on to his car windows. “I was only scratched on the back of my head,” he added.
There was no sign of any military or industrial activity in the local area. The car park was used by residents of the nearby apartment blocks, and the non-residential buildings largely disused.
Zelenskyy urged a global response to the attacks. “While Moscow is investing in ballistic missiles and escalation, such strikes do not always receive the response they should. And as long as Ukraine does not have enough anti-ballistic defence, Russia will not consider peace seriously,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
An attack in Brovary district in the wider Kyiv region killed one man and wounded another, said the regional governor, Tymur Tkachenko. “One industrial facility has been damaged. All relevant services are on site, working to extinguish the fire,” he said.
Warehouses in Boryspil, east of Kyiv, were also attacked, including a facility operated by the Ukrainian Red Cross, Ukraine’s prime minister, Sergiy Koretsky, said.
Both sides have been escalating long-range attacks while air defences remain short. Ukraine has attacked oil refineries and warehouses close to Moscow using newly developed cruise missiles and drones, while Russia has stepped up its attacks on Kyiv, making heavy use of hard ballistics.
The Ukrainian air force said Kinzhal and Zircon hypersonic missiles were used in the attack, as well as Iskander and North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles, sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles and Shahed drones.
Ukraine’s air force had earlier warned of Russian Kalibr missiles passing over the regional village of Kaharlyk and heading towards the capital. Eight of the missiles had been launched from warships in the Black Sea, though all were shot down.
Romania’s defence ministry said radar systems detected aerial targets near the Ukrainian border overnight, prompting the scrambling of two Spanish fighter jets deployed on Nato missions and a Romanian air force helicopter. The ministry said a drone entered Romanian airspace near Galați before crashing in an unpopulated area in Tulcea county.
Poland’s military command said it had mobilised aircraft and activated air defences aimed at protecting Polish airspace, particularly in areas bordering Ukraine.
Finland’s defence ministry said on Thursday evening that it suspected a Russian aircraft had violated its airspace earlier in the day.
Russia also reported a large Ukrainian drone attack. Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said 250 drones had flown toward the Moscow region between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and that most had been destroyed at a significant distance from the capital itself.
