Russian Missile Strikes on Kyiv Kill At Least 13, Wound Dozens

Kyiv endured a heavy wave of Russian missile and drone strikes overnight, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 30, according to Ukrainian authorities. The attack was the latest in a series of intense bombardments that have battered the Ukrainian capital over the summer, as reported by ABC Australia.

Local officials said the strikes damaged residential buildings, a medical facility, and an educational institution across several districts of the capital. In the Solomianskyi district, a fire broke out and the upper floors of a nine-storey residential block were destroyed, where seven people were killed, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. The mayor called for Friday to be observed as a day of mourning. ABC Australia and Deutsche Welle both reported the mayor's statement.

A children's hospital was also damaged in the strikes, breaking windows and setting cars ablaze nearby, as reported by the BBC. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said apartment blocks and warehouses were targeted, and emergency crews pulled at least two survivors from the rubble.

In the broader Kyiv region, an attack in the Brovary district killed one man and wounded another, according to Kyiv regional governor Tymur Tkachenko. The strikes cut power to thousands of properties across the region, plunging parts of the capital into darkness. Power company DTEK later said it had restored electricity to more than half of the roughly 90,000 homes left without power in the capital, as reported by ABC Australia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media that the attack was a "massive attack" that Russia had been "preparing for a long time, combining different types of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, aiming to cause as much damage as possible to civilian infrastructure." He added that the death toll in the capital had risen to 12, with 40 wounded, although other official figures varied. The Ukrainian air force reported that Russia launched dozens of ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missiles, as well as 168 drones, and said air defence units downed 145 drones and most of the cruise missiles but none of the ballistic missiles.

Ukraine's critical shortage of Patriot interceptors, the sole weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles, has been a key weakness that Russia has sought to exploit, as reported by The Hindu. President Zelenskyy has repeatedly pleaded for more interceptors from Western allies, noting that international stockpiles are low amid other conflicts.

The Russian Defence Ministry said it targeted facilities producing drone components, a military depot, and a logistics hub in the attacks on Kyiv and its surroundings. In a separate statement, it said the attack struck a Kyiv industrial site manufacturing components for Ukraine's Flamingo cruise missiles, and that air defences had shot down 726 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions and the Black and Azov seas.

The attacks have heightened regional security concerns. Romania's defence ministry said a drone entered Romanian airspace near Galați and crashed in an uninhabited area, causing a small fire. Moldova's Defence Ministry reported that its airspace was breached by at least one unauthorised drone. In neighbouring Poland, the armed forces activated preventive military aviation operations and ground-based air defence systems to protect Polish airspace, as reported by Deutsche Welle and France 24. Two Spanish F-18 jets, deployed on an air policing mission in Romania, were scrambled to monitor air targets near the border.

Residents described the terror of the overnight assault. "There used to be a building here, and now it's gone," said 45-year-old Maria Abramova, who said she had just reached her children's room when explosions rang out, blowing out her windows and nearly killing her husband. Another resident, 60-year-old Larysa Bondaruk, said her neighbour's grandson had been trapped under the rubble and died, and that two people were killed in her building.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued its own long-range strikes against Russia, targeting oil facilities and logistics infrastructure. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that 250 drones had flown toward the Moscow region between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, with 28 destroyed in the region. Ukraine's defence ministry said its latest attack on a Wildberries warehouse meant that seven out of ten of the largest Wildberries logistics centres had been disabled, as reported by the BBC.

President Zelenskyy also said Russia attacked gas infrastructure in the northern Chernihiv region and a border crossing with Moldova in the southern Odesa region. He noted that in the past week, Russia had launched more than 1,550 attack drones, 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles against Ukraine. Two separate attacks on Russia this week killed at least 16 people, including one child, according to the BBC.

Diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire have so far failed, and Ukraine has handed proposals to US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for a plan to end the war, as reported by ABC Australia.