Russia strikes Ukraine with missiles and drones; at least 11 killed, Zelensky says

Russia launched missiles and drones across Ukraine overnight, killing at least 11 people, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky said Russia fired 70 missiles and drones, in what he described as one of the biggest strikes since Moscow launched the war in 2022. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 130 drones, 48 cruise missiles and an unspecified number of ballistic missiles, and that air defence units downed 161 targets.

Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said two people were killed in the densely populated Darnytskyi neighbourhood in a fire caused by an air strike. In Pryluki, in the northern Chernihiv region, regional authorities said a Russian missile hit a five-storey residential building. Local authorities said at least five people were killed there and 20 wounded, and that there were fears more residents could be buried under the rubble. Zelensky said two people were killed in Dnipro and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, and two others in Oleksandriya.

Authorities said Kyiv and Poltava in central Ukraine, the southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv in the northeast were the focus of the attacks. Ukrainian officials said the strikes damaged residential buildings, industrial facilities and infrastructure. Zelensky said energy infrastructure was one of the key targets, saying: "The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively."

Russia's Ministry of Defence said its forces carried out a "massive strike" on military-industrial facilities in Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions, using high-precision land-, sea- and air-launched weapons, as well as drones. It said targets included sites where the company Fire Point makes and stores Flamingo cruise missiles and medium- and long-range drones in Kyiv, as well as the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Kharkiv. The ministry added that strikes also targeted port and ship-repair infrastructure in the Odesa region, as well as vessels it said were being used in the interests of Ukraine's armed forces.

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces hit four Russian targets over the last 24 hours, including two oil facilities and a training ground in the Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions, as well as carrying out a response in the Black Sea. He called the attacks a "just" response to Moscow's strikes and said the facilities targeted helped "Russia finance and wage its brutal war." Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's parliamentary commissioner for human rights, said on Telegram: "Another sleepless night, another act of terror, after which people still have to plan their working day despite everything."