TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Russia launched a large-scale overnight missile and drone assault on Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least one person and injuring at least 11 others after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that intelligence indicated Moscow was preparing a major strike.
As reported by CNN, the attack triggered multiple explosions across the Ukrainian capital, damaging residential buildings and sparking fires in several districts. Emergency crews rushed to rescue residents trapped inside a destroyed nine-story apartment building, while air raid sirens echoed across the city for hours.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 11 people were hospitalized following the assault. He added that medical personnel were injured after an ambulance station was struck and that a hotel roof caught fire on central Shevchenko Boulevard.
Klitschko later confirmed that Kyiv had also come under a ballistic missile attack in addition to waves of drones.
Hours before the strikes, Zelensky urged Ukrainians to remain vigilant and immediately respond to air raid alerts.
"That is exactly the threat we are facing tonight," Zelensky wrote on X, saying intelligence reports showed Russia had been preparing a "massive strike against Ukraine" for some time.
The Ukrainian president also cut short his visit to Dublin to return home as the threat escalated.
Many Kyiv residents sought shelter inside metro stations after sirens began sounding around 8 p.m. local time, preparing for what became another night of sustained Russian bombardment.
Emergency responders continued rescue operations throughout the night as fires burned across several parts of the capital.
The latest attack came as Ukraine has intensified long-range drone operations deep inside Russian territory. President Zelensky has described the campaign as part of a broader strategy to pressure Moscow into ending the war by targeting energy facilities and military infrastructure.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian drones struck Moscow again after carrying out one of the largest attacks on the Russian capital since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. Less than two weeks earlier, Ukraine had also targeted a major oil refinery in the Moscow region.
According to DW, Russia's renewed strikes on Kyiv reflect Moscow's continued focus on attacking Ukraine's energy network and other critical infrastructure, while Ukraine has increasingly improved its own long-range drone capabilities to hit military and industrial targets far inside Russia.
A recent analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that drones have become the dominant weapon on the battlefield. The report estimated that more than 90 percent of Russian casualties now result from drone attacks rather than direct combat between ground forces.
The CSIS study estimated Russian forces have suffered approximately 1.4 million battlefield casualties—including those killed, wounded, or missing—between February 2022 and June 2026, with between 400,000 and 450,000 fatalities.
During the same period, Ukrainian forces were estimated to have sustained between 525,000 and 625,000 casualties, including 125,000 to 150,000 deaths.
Combined, the report estimates that more than two million Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, wounded, or gone missing since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, underscoring the growing human cost of Europe's largest war in decades.
Read: Ukraine Launches Massive Drone Attack on Moscow, Pressuring Kremlin
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