Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine kill at least 16

Overnight Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and its surrounding regions killed at least 16 people and injured more than 40, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said that Moscow had launched a massive ballistic missile attack on the city and that cleanup operations were still underway. He called for Friday to be observed as a day of mourning.

What do we know about the Russian attacks?

The attacks damaged residential buildings, a medical facility and an educational institution, the Kyiv city military administration said in a statement. The power supply in some parts of the capital was also cut.

At least 16 people were killed in Kyiv, officials said.

Klitschko said seven people died in the city's Solomianskyi district, where a fire broke out and the upper floors of a nine-story residential block were destroyed.

Which other areas were hit?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia also attacked gas infrastructure in the northern Chernihiv region and a border crossing with Moldova in the southern Odesa region.

"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," Zelenskyy said on social media.

Ukraine has a critical shortage of interceptors to down ballistic missiles, a weakness Russia has sought to exploit.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had targeted facilities producing drone components, a military depot and a logistics hub in the attacks on Kyiv and its surrounds.

In neighboring Poland, the Polish army said it started preventive military aviation operations to protect its airspace amid the Russian strikes. The Polish military often takes this measure amid heavy Russian strikes on Ukraine.

In Romania, the Defense Ministry said a drone crashed into an uninhabited area of the country of Tulcea during the Russian attacks. The ministry added that radar systems detected aerial targets near the Ukrainian border, prompting the scrambling of two Spanish fighter jets deployed on NATO missions and a Romanian air force helicopter.

A drone also crossed Moldova's airspace, the country's military said.

Escalation on both sides

Russia has stepped up attacks on the Ukrainian capital in recent months, with Ukraine also increasing attacks deep within Russia.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 250 drones had flown toward the Moscow region between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Diplomatic efforts have failed to reach a ceasefire in the war, which started with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.