Russia launches massive ballistic missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight

Why it matters

The attack hit civilian infrastructure including a maternity hospital, residential buildings, a Nova Poshta sorting depot and a temple, killing two people and injuring at least eight. It landed hours after Ukraine had agreed to a full ceasefire and after 51 UN states had urged Russia to follow, giving Kyiv a diplomatic backdrop for renewed appeals for stronger sanctions and air-defence supplies.

What happened

Russia launched a massive combined attack on Kyiv overnight on 23–24 September 2025, firing three waves of ballistic missiles, anti-ship missiles of the type Zircon, and 282 strike drones including Shahed and Gerbera models, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Monitoring channels said the missiles were launched from Kursk and Voronezh oblasts. A red-level air-raid alert was declared in Kyiv and most oblasts shortly after 01:00, and explosions were heard across the capital.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that as of 08:00 air defence had shot down or suppressed 227 aerial targets: 4 Zircon missiles, 3 Iskander-M/S-400/KN-23 ballistic missiles, 1 Banderol/Dan-T, and 219 drones. Hits were recorded at 13 locations and falling debris at 10. President Zelensky said about 60% of the ballistic missiles fired at Kyiv were intercepted.

Casualty figures evolved overnight. Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko initially reported one killed and two injured; later updates gave 2 killed and 6 injured. Ukraine's State Emergency Service (SES) settled on 2 killed and at least 8 injured. The two fatalities were a 57-year-old woman in Podilskyi district and a 65-year-old man in Solomianskyi district; the injured, aged 25 to 77, included a police officer.

Damage was recorded in Solomianskyi, Podilskyi, Dnipro, Darnytskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts. In Solomianskyi, warehouses were partially destroyed with a fire spreading to basement premises and three people hospitalised. In Podilskyi, missile debris fell near a maternity hospital (city maternity hospital No. 2), damaging windows and part of the facade from the 1st to 5th floors and the adjacent clinical-diagnostic centre; four cars caught fire on the parking lot and one body was recovered there. In Dnipro, debris fell in the courtyards of a 16-storey residential building, a private house and an administrative building; a three-storey administrative building was damaged, a private house destroyed and one person was rescued, with two neighbouring houses also damaged. In Darnytskyi, debris fell on a roadway and ignited parked cars. A Nova Poshta branch (No. 6) was destroyed and a sorting depot damaged; the Pokrovsky temple on Priorka was also damaged, and there were reports of electricity and water supply disruptions across Kyiv. The Kyiv City Express was temporarily suspended in both directions, and bus and tram services on Mykoly Vasylenka street were halted.

At 02:05, during the attack, a boy was born in the basement shelter of the maternity hospital; patients, children and medical staff inside were unharmed.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

Ukrainian sources frame the strike as an attack by Russia on Kyiv, emphasising damage to civilian sites — the maternity hospital, residential buildings, the Nova Poshta depot, the Pokrovsky temple, warehouses and parked cars — and the human-interest detail of a boy being born at 02:05 in the maternity hospital's shelter while the strike continued. President Zelensky tied the timing to his meeting with six U.S. House members in New York about the Lindsey Graham sanctions bill and used the attack to press for additional interceptor missiles and the implementation of sanctions against Russia. Ukrainian outlets also foreground the diplomatic backdrop: the night strike came hours after Ukraine had agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire and after 51 UN member states had called on Russia to do the same. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha is quoted saying that Russia's response shows active diplomacy must be backed by crushing pressure on Putin's regime.

How international sources describe it

International wires lead with the basic facts of the attack — a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv, two killed and six or eight injured — and report the maternity hospital facade damage and the body found on its parking lot. Some outlets, including German and English-language reporting, used Klitschko's intermediate figure of 2 killed/6 injured, while Ukrainian and Russian-language reporting and the SES settled on 2 killed/at least 8 injured. International coverage carries the Russian Defence Ministry's claim that it struck Ukrainian military-industrial complex and communications/logistics centres in Kyiv and Odesa Oblast, providing a Russian official rationale not echoed in Ukrainian sources, as well as AFP accounts of roughly ten powerful explosions in Kyiv and monitoring-channel estimates of 14–20 missiles across the first three waves. In the wider UN-week backdrop, international outlets report Slovak President Peter Pellegrini's UN Security Council statement accusing Russia of deliberately targeting civilians (contrasting with PM Robert Fico's stance) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's statement that Russia "will not pause" the war.

Where reporting differs

Casualty figures changed overnight: Mayor Klitschko initially reported 1 killed and 2 injured, then 2 killed and 6 injured; the SES final figure was 2 killed and at least 8 injured — some headlines still use 2 killed/6 injured. Estimates of the number of missiles launched at Kyiv also differ: monitoring channels reported around 20 missiles in total, while military-affiliated Telegram channels counted at least 14 across the first three attack waves. Finally, the Russian Defence Ministry said the strikes targeted Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities and communications/logistics centres in Kyiv and Odesa oblasts, while Ukrainian authorities described the main targets as residential buildings, a maternity hospital, energy and logistics facilities serving civilians.

Background

A long-running series of Russian long-range strikes on Ukrainian cities preceded this attack, including a full-day drone attack on Kyiv on 23 September that injured 45 people and killed two. On 18 September, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a sanctions bill co-authored by the late Senator Lindsey Graham imposing tariffs of up to 100% on countries that buy Russian energy resources. Trump confirmed on 22 September a readiness to grant Ukraine a licence to produce Patriot air-defence missiles, though Zelensky has said Ukraine currently receives air-defence missiles one or two at a time due to global shortages. On the evening of 23 September, 51 UN member states jointly called on Russia to agree to a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire after Ukraine had agreed.