Deadly, massive Russian attack shakes Kyiv as Ukrainian strikes hit Moscow’s oil sector
Russia struck Kyiv with drone and missile strikes early Thursday, killing at least 17 civilians and injuring many others in what Moscow said was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities that have caused fuel shortages and pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
A huge explosion rocked the Ukrainian capital for hours overnight, with many people taking shelter in underground stations after authorities issued air raid warnings. The emergency services were still digging through the rubble of the destroyed and burnt flats in search of victims as it dawned.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that the deadly bombings were the result of Ukrainian strikes that hit civilian infrastructure. Ukraine’s frequent and large-scale attacks – described by Zelenskyy as a 40-day blitz – have mainly targeted oil refineries, which have caused a fuel crisis that has devastated the Russian people, more than four years after Moscow’s full-scale attacks on its neighbors.
Ukrainian officials say they are trying to force Putin to come to the negotiating table.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war, recently undertaken by the Trump administration, have not yielded results. Putin thinks time is on his side, that Western support will end and that the Ukrainian resistance will eventually collapse under the pressure of the bombing, Western analysts say.
‘Frightful Night’
The attack killed 17 people in Kyiv and injured more than 90, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a “bad night” in the capital.
Damage was recorded in 30 places across the city, mostly in residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. About 20 residential buildings were damaged, said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
Explosive drones and missiles lit up the night, and a loud noise echoed in Kyiv. Trails of anti-aircraft fire swirled through the air as a thick plume of smoke rose into the sky.
A resident of Kyiv, Serhii Budko, said three or four missiles hit his district of the city. “We were inside the shelter and we felt the shelter shake — the roof and the floor, everything,” the 24-year-old told the Associated Press.
In Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district, people were trapped inside a damaged nine-story building, while in Darnytskyi district six buildings of a nine-story building collapsed.
Russian General Staff General Valery Gerasimov reported the results of the “massive retaliatory strike” to Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
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The bombing was “against military-related targets only,” Peskov said.
Russian airstrikes in Ukraine have repeatedly struck civilian areas. More than 16,000 Ukrainian citizens have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations.
Sybiha said in April that domestic production meets 75 percent of Ukraine’s military needs and accounts for 95 percent of long-range strikes against Russia. The location of the factories that make those weapons is secret.
More Patriots please
The attack used “long-range precision weapons” and drones “on military industrial facilities and fuel and energy facilities in Kyiv and Kyiv region, as well as military aviation infrastructure in four other regions of Ukraine,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
It published a list of targets it said the barrage hit, most of the plants that make and assemble Ukrainian drones, missiles and other items.
Russia fired 74 missiles, 24 of which were ballistic, and 496 drones of various types in the attack, the Ukrainian military said.
Ukraine’s air defenses have improved throughout the war, especially in countering Russian drones. But the missiles are more difficult to stop, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly pleaded with allies to provide Patriot missile systems that offer better protection.
Sybiha urged countries not to delay decisions to provide air and missile defense systems.
He rejected any attempt by Russia to justify the strikes as retaliation for Ukraine’s long-standing aggression, saying Ukraine was exercising its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter while Russia remained an aggressor.
Sybiha said in X that the death toll may increase as rescue teams continue their work.
Ukrainian troops attacked one of Russia’s largest oil refineries overnight in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, starting a fire, the Ukrainian General Staff said.
Also, Ukrainian forces destroyed a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in the Russian-held Luhansk region. The bridge was used by Russian forces to transport personnel, weapons and military equipment, according to the General Staff.
Ukraine’s recent success with drone strikes that have kept Russian troops on the front line, disrupted Russian supply lines to the rear and damaged oil facilities has brought a dramatic change in the war, Western analysts say.
“Russia’s offensive in the spring-summer of 2026 has failed to achieve significant gains so far, and the level of Russian military development in June 2026. [was] half of the level of development achieved by the Russian military in June 2025,” said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, in an assessment on Wednesday.
