Russia launches large-scale overnight strike on Kyiv region, killing four

Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine, with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles fired at targets in and around Kyiv. Ukrainian officials said four people were killed and more than 50 others injured in the capital and surrounding areas. Damage was reported to residential buildings, schools and other civilian sites across the region.

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Ukrainian air force figures said 90 missiles and 600 drones were detected from 18:00 local time on Saturday. The attack was reported to have hit more than 50 locations across Kyiv, according to the national police. Kyiv's military administration said shortly after midnight that the capital had been subjected to a massive ballistic attack and warned that further launches were possible.

Officials said two people were killed in Kyiv itself, while 30 people, including two children, were taken to hospital. A nine-storey residential building in the central Shevchenko district was hit and a fire broke out on the top floors, killing one person. In the same district, debris from a strike near a school air raid shelter blocked the entrance and trapped several people inside.

Emergency services were deployed to multiple scenes to extinguish fires, clear debris and treat the injured. The attack adds to a sharp escalation in the war and comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed retaliation following a deadly incident in Starobilsk, where 18 people were killed in an attack on a student dormitory. Ukraine's general staff said it had carried out an attack near Starobilsk in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine overnight on Friday, but said it had struck an elite Russian military unit.

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The exchange underlines the continuing cycle of strikes and counter-strikes that has shaped the conflict. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Oreshnik hypersonic missile was used in a strike on Bila Tserkva, a city in the Kyiv region. He had earlier warned that Russia appeared to be preparing an attack and said Ukrainian intelligence had received information that the missile could be used.

The weapon is described by Ukrainian officials as travelling at more than 10 times the speed of sound and as being impossible to intercept, although that claim could not be independently verified from the available material. What remains unclear is the full scale of damage outside Kyiv and whether all of the reported launches reached their intended targets. It is also not clear how many of the missiles and drones were intercepted.

Officials are likely to release updated casualty and damage figures as rescue work continues and assessments are completed.

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