KYIV, Ukraine — Two civilians were killed and at least ten others sustained injuries overnight Tuesday as Russian forces launched a heavy barrage of missiles and drones targeting the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, according to local officials.
The assault marks the end of a brief lull in attacks that had persisted over the weekend. The relative quiet coincided with the arrival of U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in Kyiv for their first official visit, part of a renewed diplomatic push to end the ongoing conflict.
The overnight offensive primarily targeted Kyiv and the southern Odesa region. Ukraine’s Air Force reported that its defense systems intercepted and suppressed two ballistic missiles, 31 cruise missiles, and 142 unmanned aerial vehicles, with impacts recorded across 29 distinct locations.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as highly complex, noting that it appeared deliberately engineered to maximize destruction. The assault utilized a combination of ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, and Shahed kamikaze drones.
The attack caused significant damage to residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said.
Beyond the capital, critical infrastructure in multiple other regions was struck. In Odesa, a local market was hit, while in Kharkiv, two individuals were injured and a multi-story residential building suffered damage. In the Sumy region, a train locomotive operating on the Kyiv-Sumy line was attacked at a railway station. Zaporizhzhia and the Dnipropetrovsk regions also faced strikes, according to the president.
Emergency services reported damage and fires in at least five districts of Kyiv. The Kyiv City Military Administration confirmed that civilian infrastructure was hit in a minimum of 16 locations.
In the Holosiivskyi district, a 26-story non-residential building was struck, and a separate fire in the same district spread to an adjacent non-residential structure. During search and rescue operations, emergency crews saved one individual and evacuated two residents from a 16-story apartment building.
In the Solomianskyi district, people became trapped inside a five-story residential building. At least ten individuals were rescued by emergency teams, which also recorded fires in the Darnytskyi and Podilskyi districts.
Iryna Barisenkova, a 61-year-old Kyiv resident, recounted hearing intense explosions while traveling on public transport, followed by reports of a massive fire near the Darnytskyi Vehicle Repair Plant (DVRZ) area on the capital’s left bank.
“Everything was thundering on the left bank,” Barisenkova said. “It was just brutal.”
She noted that she had been able to sleep peacefully during the preceding two nights while the U.S. envoys were in the city. “We got some rest, thanks to them,” she remarked. “Let them come more often so they don’t shell us.”