Huge Russian strikes on Kyiv leave 17 dead as attacks spill over to Romanian and Moldovan territory

KYIV – At least 17 individuals have been killed and dozens wounded in a "massive" Russian attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight and on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities stated.

Key points

• "The missiles narrowly missed us by about 10 minutes, " local Kyiv resident Anastasiia Kovtun, 31, informed Reuters.
• Outside of Kyiv, Russia additionally attacked gas infrastructure in the Chernihiv region and a border crossing with Moldova in the Odesa region, Zelensky stated.
• "This year we have two and a half times less interceptors than we had in 2025, " Zelensky remarked in that interview.
• Moldova's president, Maia Sandu, additionally stated on Thursday that her country's airspace was once again violated as a drone came down on Moldovan territory.
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Attacks additionally bled into Moldova and Romania on Thursday. Romania remarked an explosive-laden naval drone believed to have been rolled out by Russia targeted one of its offshore natural gas projects. As the destruction of civilian infrastructure additionally drew sharp international condemnation, in the Ukrainian capital, strikes damaged a hospital, a school, a preschool, residential buildings and a number of warehouses throughout the city, local authorities noted.

As an air raid alert stretched on for hours, CNN producers in Kyiv heard a number of explosions and saw smoke over the city. Massive fires lit up the night sky over the capital, video by Reuters news agency indicated. The attacks on Kyiv continued during the day as three separate air raid alarms sounded in the capital on Thursday. Ukraine has been relatively successful at intercepting the massive numbers of drones that Russia uses in its large-scale attacks. But in recent weeks, Moscow has repeatedly exploited Kyiv's near-zero stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles. It are needed to defend against faster-moving ballistic missiles. Ukraine only has 10% of the interceptor missiles it urgently needs from the United States and other allies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky informed CNN in an interview earlier this month.

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"This year we have two and a half times less interceptors than we had in 2025, " Zelensky remarked in that interview. "Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before." Russia's defense ministry remarked Thursday on Telegram that it had rolled out a "massive strike using high-precision weapons" against military facilities, a transport and logistics center, and warehouses in the city of Kyiv and the broader region. Zelensky remarked on Thursday that "the Russians prepared for a long time and combined various types of projectiles, cruise missiles, and drones to inflict as much damage as possible on civilian infrastructure."

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Rescue workers had pulled two individuals from the rubble and were continuing to agreement with the aftermath of the assault, hampered by the ongoing attacks. More than a dozen locations throughout the city were impacted, emergency services stated. Firefighters were working to extinguish massive blazes.

"The missiles narrowly missed us by about 10 minutes, " local Kyiv resident Anastasiia Kovtun, 31, informed Reuters. She and her neighbors fled to a bomb shelter in a nearby parking garage. "By the time we were on our way back, the entire road had already been bombed, and all the buildings along the route were damaged." Windows were shattered at a children's hospital in the Solomianskyi district, remarked Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko.

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Outside of Kyiv, Russia additionally attacked gas infrastructure in the Chernihiv region and a border crossing with Moldova in the Odesa region, Zelensky stated. Other drone attacks and shelling hit the regions of Zhytomyr, Kherson, Kharkiv and Donetsk. As reports indicate from regional military administrations, in total, in the last 24 hours, the death toll in Ukraine has reached 25 individuals, with a further 132 injured throughout the country. During the attacks on Ukraine, Romania's defense ministry remarked a Russian drone had crashed into its territory, landing in an uninhabited area in the county of Tulcea, near the Ukrainian border, Reuters noted. Russian drones have repeatedly breached Romanian airspace throughout the war.

Notably, the defense ministry afterwards went on that it scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to destroy a marine drone that was carrying explosives near a Romanian offshore natural gas project.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the naval drone an example of "hybrid warfare" and remarked that "an escalating campaign of threats is underway, unsettling our citizens and seeking to divide our Union."

Moldova's president, Maia Sandu, additionally stated on Thursday that her country's airspace was once again violated as "a drone came down on Moldovan territory. Russia must face far greater pressure to stop this." Meanwhile, Poland remarked it had kicked off preventative military aviation operations to protect its airspace during the strikes, Reuters documented. While Moscow has been striking Ukraine near-nightly, Kyiv has additionally ramped up its offensive, launching more than 800 drones at Russia Sunday in one of its largest aerial attacks of the conflict.

Taken together, the developments around huge Russian strikes on Kyiv leave 17 dead as attacks spill over point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.