As dawn broke over Kyiv on Thursday, rescue workers dug through concrete slabs and twisted metal where an apartment block had stood in the capital’s Darnytsia neighborhood, a leafy residential area between a suburban forest and the Dnieper River. Wisps of smoke rose from the collapsed nine-story building as emergency crews carried residents away on stretchers.
All 18 apartments in the building were destroyed, officials said. Nine people were killed, Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said. Among the dead was a 12-year-old girl, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. About 20 people were believed missing as of Thursday, and more than 30 were injured. Emergency workers rescued 28 residents from the rubble, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. Klitschko declared Friday a day of mourning for the victims.
The building’s entrance was smashed in the strike, preventing residents from escaping, and the blast shattered windows throughout the neighborhood. “Then the house shook violently and there was a loud bang, breaking the glass in my house,” 78-year-old Lyudmila Hlushko told The Associated Press. Another resident, Nadiia Lobanova, said: “It was a terrible night. We’re used to this. Well, it’s impossible to get used to this, but somehow we held on.”
The assault was part of a widening Russian aerial campaign. Zelenskyy said Moscow launched ballistic and cruise missiles in the attack, and that more than 1,560 drones had been fired at Ukrainian population centers since Wednesday. Damage was reported in six districts of the capital, Tkachenko said, and strikes hit the cities of Kremenchuk, Bila Tserkva, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Odesa.
“We are now experiencing the largest strikes since the start of the full-scale invasion,” air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. Ukraine’s air defense forces are under severe strain, he said, but the interception rate of drones and missiles was over 93%, according to Zelenskyy.
The air force said 693 Russian targets were shot down or jammed overnight — 41 missiles and 652 drones of various types. Fifteen missiles and 23 drones scored direct hits across 24 locations, and debris from downed drones fell in another 18 locations. Strikes on energy infrastructure left customers in Kyiv and 11 other regions temporarily without power, national grid operator Ukrenergo said.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted the timing of the attack. “At the very time when leaders of the most powerful countries are meeting in Beijing, and the world hopes for peace, predictability and cooperation, Putin launched hundreds of drones, ballistic and cruise missiles at the capital of Ukraine,” Sybiha wrote on X. He said Trump and Xi have sufficient leverage to compel Putin to end his four-year-old invasion. “Only pressure on Moscow can make him stop,” Sybiha said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces targeted Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, including air bases, fuel facilities, and transport infrastructure, and claimed all targets were hit. Among the weapons deployed were Kinzhal missiles, which Moscow says can fly at 10 times the speed of sound. The Kyiv office of defense contractor Skyeton, which specializes in reconnaissance drones, was destroyed in the attack, though the company said it had anticipated such a strike and relocated its production.
The attacks undercut recent suggestions from Trump and Putin that the war is nearing its end. The bombardment followed a May 9–11 ceasefire that Trump said he asked both Zelenskyy and Putin to observe; fighting continued over those 72 hours, though at reduced intensity.
On Wednesday, a rare daytime attack on Kyiv killed at least six people, Zelenskyy said. That assault, involving 800 drones, struck about 20 regions and was among the longest such attacks of the war.
In other developments Thursday, Russian drones struck a clearly marked U.N. vehicle delivering aid to residents of Kherson in southern Ukraine, Sybiha said. The vehicle was hit twice in two locations, but no one was injured. The Hungarian government summoned Russia’s ambassador over a drone attack near its border with Ukraine, a step marking a sharp shift in tone by new Prime Minister Péter Magyar toward Moscow after years of warm relations under former leader Viktor Orbán. Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina resigned after her coalition partner withdrew support, leaving her without a majority amid pressure over her government’s handling of multiple incidents involving stray drones crossing into Latvian territory.