Ukraine says Russia launches large-scale strikes on Kyiv, central and southern Ukraine

Ukraine said Russia conducted a night of large-scale missile and drone strikes against energy facilities and other targets around Kyiv and across central and southern Ukraine, destroying and damaging multiple facilities and killing at least four people in the Kyiv region with several others injured, according to Ukrainian authorities and Reuters.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia deployed 68 missiles and 430 drones in the strikes, targeting Kyiv, the second city Kharkiv, and areas in Sumy, Dnipro, and Mykolaiv. He said energy infrastructure, schools, businesses and civilian neighborhoods were among the hits.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said the overnight attacks and related frontline shelling left power supplies cut in six regions, underscoring how disruptions to electricity have become a recurring feature of the war.

Poland’s military said aircraft were briefly scrambled in response to the incident, though there were no confirmed Russian airspace violations.

Zelenskiy, posting on X, warned that Russia may try to use the Middle East conflict to unleash greater destruction in Europe and urged allied nations to boost production of air-defense missiles to shield Ukraine from missiles and drones. He had appeared in Paris the day before, arguing that international attention had shifted toward the Middle East and reiterating Ukraine’s need for sufficient defense missiles.

Bloomberg cited reports that Ukraine also conducted drone attacks against Russian oil facilities and ports, causing material damage, as Kyiv sought to strike back at Russia’s logistics and energy assets.

Russian authorities said a fire broke out at the Afipsky oil refinery in Krasnodar region, and drone debris near a port by the Kerch Strait—which links the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov and sits along the Caucasus coast—led to three hospitalizations.

Ukraine has, in the war now in its fifth year, intensified strikes against Russia’s energy infrastructure and port facilities as part of its broader strategy to degrade Moscow’s ability to sustain its war effort.

For the United States and other Western allies, the episode highlights continued vulnerabilities in European energy security to aerial attacks, the ongoing importance of robust air defense, and the strategic significance of the Kerch Strait and regional port routes for energy and security policy. The events come as Washington weighs continued support for Ukraine’s defense and the resilience of allied supply chains in a volatile security environment.