Russia pounds Kyiv with drone and missile attack, including Oreshnik

Russia’s early Sunday assault on Kyiv involved a broad mix of drones and missiles that sparked fires and hours of explosions across the city, according to Kyiv officials and Ukraine’s military. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said at least two people were killed and at least 77 injured, and he said there was damage in “every district of the city.” (src_001)

Ukrainian air officials said Russia carried out the strike with 600 drones and 90 missiles, including the hypersonic Oreshnik, a ballistic missile Russia said is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Ukraine’s air defense forces intercepted most of the drones and more than half of the missiles, the air force said. (src_001)

Hours before the attack, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Ukrainians to expect large strikes that involved Oreshnik, citing European and U.S. intelligence. In a Sunday video posted to social media, Zelenskyy said an Oreshnik missile hit Bila Tserkva, about 50 miles south of Kyiv, and he added: “They really are unhinged.” (src_001)

Russia’s defense ministry confirmed on Telegram that it had used the Oreshnik missile. In the lead-up to the attack, the report also noted that in 2024 President Vladimir Putin described the weapon as traveling “like a meteorite,” saying it cannot be stopped by air defense and can obliterate underground bunkers. (src_001)

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said the European Union was sending more support to help Ukraine reinforce its air defense systems. In a statement posted to social media, von der Leyen said: “Terror against civilians is not strength. It’s despair.” (src_001)

Ukraine’s culture minister, Tetyana Berezhna, said the strikes damaged the largest number of cultural institutions in Kyiv since Russia’s 2022 invasion. She said the museum dedicated to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster was destroyed, and she said one of the city’s oldest markets burned down. (src_001)

The attack also came after Zelenskyy’s warning about Oreshnik and as negotiations to end Russia’s war on Ukraine have stalled, with the report tying the slowdown to the U.S. being distracted by its own war efforts, including its war with Israel, while also citing loosened sanctions on Russian oil exports amid the conflict with Iran. It said oil—described as a pillar of Russia’s economy—helps fuel the war in Ukraine, as Ukrainian long-range drone strikes have targeted Russian oil refineries, depots, and ports used for exports. (src_001)

The report added that NPR recently embedded with a Ukrainian military unit that launches long-range drones made in Ukraine into Russia. A unit member using the callsign Uki said the strikes are part of how Ukraine can impose “effective sanctions to force Russia into a just and lasting peace.” (src_001)