Russia unleashed one of its largest aerial barrages of the war against Ukraine overnight, firing more than 700 drones and missiles in successive waves that killed at least 18 people, levelled a residential tower block in Kyiv, and plunged two southern cities into darkness.
Air raid sirens pierced the Ukrainian capital at 02:30 local time on Thursday, sending residents scrambling for shelter as the assault began. By morning, four people lay dead in Kyiv — among them a 12-year-old boy — and 45 others had been wounded. A 16-storey residential building in the central Podil district collapsed entirely under the force of the strikes, and four emergency medical workers responding to the scene were themselves injured in the north of the city.
The carnage was not confined to the capital. Nine people were killed in Odesa, the southern port city that has endured repeated targeting throughout the conflict. In Dnipro, regional head Oleksandr Ganzha confirmed four deaths and approximately a dozen injuries, while Mayor Borys Filatov announced that a further body was recovered on Thursday, bringing the city’s toll to five. In Kharkiv, a drone strike wounded a 77-year-old woman and a 66-year-old man. The cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson were left without electricity following the assault.
Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia had launched 659 Shahed-type drones and 44 cruise and ballistic missiles over the preceding 24 hours. Air defence units intercepted 636 drones and 31 missiles, but direct hits were recorded at 26 locations across the country — a scale of destruction that underscored the limits of Ukraine’s defensive capacity.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack in a post on X, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha labelled it a war crime. Zelensky also issued a stark warning: Ukraine faces a critical shortage of Patriot air defence missiles, the interceptors most capable of countering ballistic threats. The disclosure highlighted the vulnerability that allowed so many projectiles to reach populated areas.
Ukraine also struck back. Two people were killed and five injured in the city of Tuapse in Russia’s Krasnodar region following a Ukrainian drone attack, with a 14-year-old girl among the dead.
The overnight bombardment came less than a week after a brief ceasefire observed over the Orthodox Easter weekend — a pause that both sides accused the other of violating hundreds of times before hostilities resumed at full intensity. The episode illustrated the fragility of any diplomatic momentum in a war now entering its fifth year since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Peace efforts remain stalled. The United States, which has been acting as a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow, has seen its diplomatic focus shift toward the Middle East following President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. The diversion of American attention has slowed progress on any framework for ending the Ukraine conflict.
On the financial front, Ukraine may be approaching a significant economic lifeline. The European Union is considering releasing a €90 billion loan to Kyiv, a move that gained momentum after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — long the bloc’s most vocal opponent of such support — was voted out of power, removing a key obstacle to the package’s approval.
The scale of Thursday’s attack, combined with Zelensky’s public warning about depleted air defences, is likely to intensify pressure on Western allies to accelerate weapons deliveries. With no ceasefire framework in sight and Russia demonstrating both the will and the capacity to sustain mass aerial bombardment of civilian infrastructure, the humanitarian toll of the conflict shows no sign of abating.
