Nine Killed in Overnight Missile and Drone Barrage on Kyiv

KYIV — Russian missiles and attack drones struck the Ukrainian capital before dawn on Saturday, killing nine people and wounding more than 30 in a barrage that set fires and damaged apartment buildings across the city.

"This was a horrific night for Kyiv," Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on social media as emergency crews worked through smoke and rubble.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack involved 35 missiles and 185 drones, and that only one of 27 ballistic missiles was intercepted. He blamed a dwindling stock of Patriot interceptors, the only system Ukraine can use against ballistic threats.

The explosions began around 1:30 a.m. Firefighters reported gutted buildings, burned-out cars, blown-in windows and collapsed roofing. The Darnytskyi district took the heaviest toll, with seven killed and 14 injured. In Solomianskyi, falling debris and fire damaged a five-story apartment block; crews rescued 35 residents from upper floors, but two people died and children were among the wounded. Fires and damage were also reported in Shevchenkivskyi and two other neighborhoods. Lithuania's foreign minister said his country's embassy was damaged when missiles struck nearby.

Russia's Defense Ministry described the operation as a large-scale strike on the capital's military-industrial and logistics targets.

Interceptors and appeals

The attack follows a strike two days earlier that killed at least 10 people elsewhere in Ukraine, and comes as Kyiv presses for more interceptors. Zelenskyy said he spoke on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and has held talks with Lockheed Martin executives about Patriot systems. At a NATO summit in Ankara, President Trump signaled willingness to let Ukraine build its own; speaking at Camp David this week, he said no agreement had been reached and called the technology transfer difficult.

The strikes were not confined to the capital. An airstrike in the southern city of Kherson killed one person and wounded 19. Ukraine continued its own long-range campaign, with Zelenskyy saying drones struck three oil refineries in Russia's Bashkortostan region overnight, about 1,000 miles from the front. He also reported that a sanctioned Russian container ship sank in the Black Sea after a drone strike; the state nuclear firm that owns the operating subsidiary said the vessel was carrying only frozen food and construction materials.