Russia launches 11-hour drone and missile assault on Kyiv, killing at least 20 civilians

Russia launched what Ukrainian officials described as a "massive combined strike" on Kyiv overnight into Thursday, with air raid sirens sounding for roughly 11 hours beginning around 8 p.m. local time. Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 74 missiles — 24 of them ballistic — and 496 drones of various types. Some 52,500 Kyiv residents, including 4,500 children, sheltered in the capital's subway stations, according to the Kyiv Metro.

At least 20 people were killed and more than 85 injured in Kyiv alone, according to Kyiv city administration head Tymur Tkachenko, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha warning the toll could rise as search-and-rescue operations continued. In the Darnytskyi district, six levels of a nine-story apartment building collapsed; rescuers were searching for survivors including a 15-year-old girl and her family, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said. In a separate incident reported by the Associated Press, a Russian guided bomb strike in the Dnipropetrovsk region killed a 7-year-old girl and wounded four other family members, including an 11-year-old.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the attack used "high-precision long-range weapons" against "military industry facilities and fuel and energy complexes," publishing a list of targets it said consisted mostly of Ukrainian drone and missile manufacturing plants. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the bombardment was "exclusively against military or military-linked targets" and that Moscow would "continue to increase pressure on the Kyiv regime." Ukraine disputed that characterization, with Zelensky stating that damage fell on more than 20 sites, "most of them ordinary residential buildings," as well as an ambulance station, a research institute, a hotel, and other businesses.