Russia bombards Kyiv in overnight drone attack, injuring 23 and setting buildings ablaze
Russia launched a major overnight drone and missile assault on Kyiv, injuring at least 23 people, damaging railway infrastructure, and igniting fires across several neighbourhoods in the Ukrainian capital, officials said early on Friday.
Air raid sirens wailed through the night in an attack that lasted over eight hours, with multiple waves of drones and missiles reported. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia had launched a total of 539 drones and 11 missiles across Ukrainian territory in one of the largest overnight assaults in recent months.
“The main target of the strikes was the capital of Ukraine, the city of Kyiv!” the Air Force posted on Telegram.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 14 of those injured had been hospitalised. He confirmed that damage had been reported in six of Kyiv’s 10 districts, on both sides of the Dnipro River. In the Holosiivskyi district, falling drone debris set a medical facility on fire.
The air assault is the latest in a growing number of Russian strikes on Kyiv, which have increased in frequency and scale in recent weeks, inflicting some of the deadliest damage since the war began.
As air defences engaged incoming drones, residents shared harrowing footage on social media showing people running for shelter, firefighters tackling blazes in darkness, and shattered buildings with blown-out windows and facades.
