Additional Coverage:
Kyiv Hit by Deadly Overnight Air Assault, Zelensky Links Attacks to US Missile Decision
Kyiv and surrounding areas experienced a significant aerial assault overnight, resulting in at least six fatalities, including two children, and 21 injuries. This marks the first major Russian air offensive on Ukraine’s capital region in nearly a month.
A drone strike on a high-rise building in Kyiv claimed the lives of a couple in their 60s. Further devastation occurred in the Brovarsky district, approximately 25 miles northeast of Kyiv, where four individuals were killed, among them a six-month-old infant, a 12-year-old girl, and a 38-year-old woman.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the regions of Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhia, Cherkasy, and Sumy were also impacted by the attacks.
Zelensky drew a direct connection between these renewed assaults and U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision not to supply Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles, as well as the subsequent cancellation of a planned U.S.-Russia summit on Ukraine. In a social media post, Zelensky stated that the night’s attacks underscore insufficient international pressure on Russia regarding its war against Ukraine.
“As soon as the issue of long-range missiles became a little further away for us, for Ukraine, then almost automatically Russia became less interested in diplomacy,” Zelensky commented. He further emphasized, “Russian words about diplomacy mean nothing until Russian leaders feel critical problems. And this can only be achieved through sanctions, long-range action, and coordinated diplomacy by all our partners.”
The overnight attacks also led to power outages in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk provinces and severe damage to energy infrastructure in Odessa, as reported by power provider DTEK. These strikes unfolded just hours after Zelensky cautioned that Russia would escalate its actions as the possibility of Tomahawk missiles receded and Trump withdrew from the summit, citing a desire to avoid a “wasted meeting.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military reported a successful deployment of U.K.-supplied short-range cruise missiles in a major attack Tuesday night on a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk region. The General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces confirmed that “A large-scale combined missile and aircraft strike was conducted, including with the use of Storm Shadow missiles, which penetrated the Russian air defence system.”
The General Staff highlighted the Bryansk Chemical Plant’s critical role in Russia’s military-industrial complex, noting its production of gunpowder, explosives, and rocket propellant components, including those used in munitions and missiles targeting Ukraine.
In response, Russia’s defense ministry stated that its air defenses successfully intercepted 33 Ukrainian drones overnight across multiple regions, from the Azov Sea and Crimea to Tula and Leningrad, with eight drones reportedly downed in Bryansk. However, the ministry made no mention of the strike on the chemical plant. The attacks prompted Russian authorities to implement temporary airspace restrictions in parts of the Leningrad region and temporary limitations on aircraft arrivals and departures at eight regional airports across the western and southwestern parts of the country.