KYIV – Russia unleashed a sweeping overnight assault on cities across Ukraine, firing missiles and drones after dark Wednesday in an attack that stretched into Thursday morning, as blasts reverberated through Kyiv well after sunrise.
The latest barrage underscored Ukraine’s growing strain as it faces a critical shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles, one of the few systems capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles. At the same time, Moscow’s use of fast, jet-powered drones is adding pressure to Ukrainian defenses in the fifth year since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Ukrainian officials say Russia has been stockpiling missiles and launching large-scale strikes every few days, aiming to overwhelm air defense networks through sheer volume. Kyiv has answered with attacks on prominent targets inside Russia, as both sides continue to trade escalating blows.
Russia says the strike focused on war-related sites
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces conducted a “massive” overnight strike against targets in nine Ukrainian cities. Moscow characterized the sites as linked to the war effort, citing industrial plants, oil refineries, logistics centers and port infrastructure.
Ukrainian authorities said civilian neighborhoods were also hit, including residential apartment buildings. A 78-year-old woman was killed in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, and at least nine other people were wounded in other areas, officials reported.
“Russia continues to invest in missiles and in expanding its war, and that means more countermeasures are needed,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media, pointing to pledges made earlier in the week by European nations to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses.
Zelenskyy added that it was vital for those efforts to be reinforced with additional ballistic missile defense packages, including through European purchases of U.S.-made weapons.
Zelenskyy make official visit to neighbor Moldova
Zelenskyy was due to visit neighboring Moldova on Thursday to mark its national day commemorating its 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. Ukraine announced its independence the same year.
Russia’s neighbors in Eastern Europe are concerned its invasion of Ukraine could trigger a wider conflict, and drones flying into its airspace have fueled jitters.
Moldova’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday that five drones breached its airspace overnight, but it didn’t specify who fired them.
Ukraine’s air force said defenses shot down or suppressed seven Russian ballistic missiles, though it didn’t say how they achieved that.
Four districts of Kyiv were hit during the night, damaging residential blocks, a school building and a medical facility, though no casualties were reported, city police said.
Russian forces struck industrial facilities as well as energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s central Poltava region, said Vitalii Diakivnych, head of the Poltava regional military administration.
The southern Odesa region also came under a massive Russian attack lasting more than seven hours, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa regional military administration.
The barrage damaged a 16-story residential building and two educational facilities as well as a grain elevator, he said. Odesa is a key port for Ukraine’s vital exports of grain and other agricultural products.
Ukraine takes aim at another Russian online retailer
Ukraine has also fired hundreds of long-range drones almost nightly at targets in Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that its air defenses shot down 267 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions, illegally annexed Crimea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
After razing huge warehouses in recent months belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, Ukrainian drones are now taking aim at Ozon, the country’s second-largest e-commerce company.
Ozon said its logistics facilities in the cities of Orenburg and Ufa were attacked but neither of the premises caught fire.
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