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Russia launched one of its largest combined strikes of the war against Ukraine overnight on Tuesday. It fired 73 missiles and 656 drones at multiple cities in a barrage that killed at least 11 people and wounded roughly 100 more. Thousands of Kyiv residents rushed into the subway system for shelter.
The attack had been telegraphed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned earlier that Russia was preparing a major assault.
"Intelligence warnings regarding Russian strikes remain in effect. A massive strike is possible. They have prepared one," he said in his nightly video address.
"Our defenders are ready 24/7 to the fullest extent possible with the supplies currently available," he noted.
The capital bore a heavy share of the assault. By the time the guns fell silent, four people were dead, and 58 were injured, including three children, across eight districts, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
A suspected missile strike partially collapsed a 24-story apartment building, leaving people likely trapped in the rubble. A separate nine-story block was set ablaze by falling missile debris. In the Solomianskyi district, a 20-story and a 24-story building were both hit, while the Podilskyi district saw a nine-story building partially damaged, with residents trapped inside.
"In the Obolon district, cars are burning after being struck by falling missile debris," Klitschko said, adding, "there are also fires at two locations in open areas, including one near a kindergarten."
At the site of one strike, Olha Mudra stood in front of a destroyed residential building, her six-year-old daughter Natalia beside her. "We couldn't understand what was happening, some kind of apocalypse?" she said.
"Everything was covered with debris, everything in smoke, you could see nothing," she added.
Rescue operations were still underway in the early morning hours, even as the air raid alert remained active. Witnesses described thousands of residents flooding the city's subway stations overnight, some carrying mattresses and belongings.
In the southeastern city of Dnipro, at least six people were killed and 36 were injured, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said on Telegram. A two-story residential building and part of a four-story apartment block were damaged, with people trapped beneath the rubble of the larger structure.
What made the Dnipro attack particularly grim was the targeting of the response itself: a second strike hit as first responders were working at the scene, killing one rescuer. All the remaining injured were hospitalized in moderate condition, Hanzha said, posting photographs that showed destroyed residential buildings, burnt-out vehicles, and a damaged children's playground.
In Kharkiv, to the northeast, a child was among the 10 people injured in combined drone and missile attacks, Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported.
Ukraine's air force said the strike involved 8 Zircon anti-ship missiles, 33 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, 27 Kh-101 cruise missiles, and 5 Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the Caspian Sea, and 656 Shahed-type and other drones launched from multiple directions, including Bryansk, Kursk, and Crimea.
By 8:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. GMT), air defenses had intercepted 642 of the 729 targets—including 40 missiles and 602 drones. But 30 ballistic missiles and 33 drone strikes reached 38 locations across the country, with debris from downed drones landing at 15 additional sites.
Ukrainian officials have warned for months that ballistic missiles remain a critical vulnerability in the country's air defenses, and pressed allies for additional interceptors to counter them.
Russia framed the assault as retaliation. Last week, the Kremlin warned of "systematic strikes" on Kyiv targeting Ukrainian military sites and decision-making centers, and urged foreigners to leave the capital. Moscow said the escalation was in response to a Ukrainian drone strike on a student dormitory in its Russian-held region of Luhansk that killed 21 people. Ukraine denied carrying out the attack.
On the Russian side of the border, Ukraine also struck back. The Ilsky oil refinery in Russia's southern Krasnodar region caught fire after a drone attack, local authorities reported. In Belgorod, an 11-year-old boy was injured when a Ukrainian drone hit a residential home. Russia claimed its air defenses shot down 148 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Diplomatic efforts to end it have made little progress, with the Trump administration's attention centered on conflicts in the Middle East.
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