Russian attacks on Ukraine kill 18 as Kyiv seeks more air defences

KYIV: Russia launched a sweeping overnight assault on Ukraine early Tuesday with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, killing 18 people and injuring more than 100, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The strikes hit several cities, including Kyiv and Dnipro, and came after Russian warnings of 'systematic' attacks on the Ukrainian capital following a deadly drone strike last month on a dormitory in the Russian-held Luhansk region. Kyiv has denied targeting the dormitory. It was the third major attack on Kyiv in less than a month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired 73 missiles and more than 600 drones in the overnight assault and renewed his appeal to the United States to provide more Patriot missile interceptors as Ukraine's stocks run low.

Zelensky said on Telegram:

This was a large-scale attack and an absolutely clear statement from Russia: if Ukraine is not protected from ballistic and other ⁠missile strikes, these attacks will continue

The Kremlin said the war had entered 'a new paradigm' after what it described as inhumane acts of terror by Ukraine's military against civilians. Moscow had warned last week of systematic strikes and urged foreigners to leave Kyiv. Zelensky sent a letter last week to US President Donald Trump and Congress requesting air defence systems, and officials said on Monday that he had not received a response.

Damage in Kyiv and Dnipro

Officials said Kyiv was the main target of the attacks. In the capital, six people were killed and nearly 80 were wounded, including three children. At least nine high-rise buildings, a kindergarten, a clinic, offices and administrative buildings were damaged. Power company DTEK said the strikes temporarily cut electricity to 140,000 residents.

In Dnipro, local officials said 12 people, including two young boys, were killed after a four-storey apartment building was partly destroyed.

At one strike site in Kyiv, resident Olha Mudra described the scene while standing with her 6-year-old daughter Natalia.

We couldn't ‌understand what was ⁠happening — some kind of apocalypse?

Thousands of residents took shelter in Kyiv's subway system, some bringing pets, belongings and mattresses.

Missiles, drones and regional fallout

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 656 drones and 73 missiles, including 33 ballistic missiles and eight Zircon hypersonic missiles, appearing to mark the largest use of that missile type in the war. Moscow says the Zircon has a range of 1,000 kilometres and can travel at nine times the speed of sound.

The air force said 40 missiles and 602 drones were shot down or otherwise neutralised, but it did not list the Zircon missiles among those intercepted. Russia's defence ministry said it had carried out a massive strike on Ukraine's defence industry facilities using high-precision long-range weapons, and later said 10 military production sites in Kyiv had been hit.

In Ukraine's Kharkiv region, officials said 14 people were injured, including a child. Poland, a Nato member, said it scrambled military aircraft to protect its airspace during the Russian attack.

Russian regions also reported attacks. Local authorities in the Krasnodar region said the Ilsky oil refinery caught fire after a drone strike, which Ukraine's military confirmed. In Russia's Belgorod region, local authorities said an 11-year-old boy was injured when a Ukrainian drone hit a house. Russian news agencies, citing the defence ministry, said 148 Ukrainian drones were downed overnight, while authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea said air defences repelled drones over Sevastopol.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged Ukraine's partners to take stronger action by increasing military assistance and pressure on Moscow, including tougher sanctions. He said on X:

Moscow is losing on the battlefield. No number of missiles can change this. What we can change is Russia's ability to continue terror

Russia's full-scale invasion, launched in 2022, has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted much of Ukraine's population and left widespread destruction across cities, towns and villages. Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory. Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.