In the early hours of Sunday, a coordinated Russian assault involving drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles struck Kyiv, killing at least one person and injuring more than 20 others, according to local authorities. The attack, which began before dawn and continued after sunrise, sent shockwaves through the city center, damaging residential buildings, a school, and commercial properties.
Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the Kyiv regional military administration, confirmed the scale of the assault: "Tonight Kyiv region is once again enduring a mass enemy attack with strike drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles." Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv military administration, reported damage across at least nine districts, including multiple residential blocks.
Civilian Infrastructure Hit
In the Shevchenko district, a school building was damaged while people were sheltering inside, Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said. Supermarkets and warehouses across the city also sustained damage. The strikes came just days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that intelligence indicated Russia was preparing a significant attack using the hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile.
The Oreshnik—meaning "hazelnut tree" in Russian—was first deployed against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024, and again in January 2026 in the western Lviv region. President Vladimir Putin has described the weapon as streaking at ten times the speed of sound, capable of destroying underground bunkers several floors deep, and immune to any missile defense system. He claimed that even conventional warheads on multiple such missiles could be as devastating as a nuclear strike. It remains unclear whether the Oreshnik was used in Sunday's attack.
This latest barrage follows a pattern of near-daily Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, often hitting civilian infrastructure and causing casualties. The assault also comes amid heightened tensions after Moscow accused Ukraine of striking a college dormitory in Russian-occupied Starobilsk in eastern Ukraine, claiming 18 people were killed. Ukraine denied targeting civilians, stating it had struck a Russian Rubicon drone unit stationed in the area.
The attack on Kyiv underscores the ongoing vulnerability of Ukrainian cities to long-range Russian weaponry, even as Ukraine continues to develop its own drone capabilities. For context, similar strikes have devastated residential areas in Kharkiv, while Ukrainian drones have targeted Russian oil infrastructure deep inside Russia. The broader security situation in the region remains tense, with Baltic states like Latvia warning residents after drone incursions.
As the war enters its fourth year, the human toll continues to mount, with no end in sight to the aerial bombardments that have become a grim daily reality for millions of Ukrainians.
