Russia launched a massive missile and drone assault on Ukraine overnight, killing at least 32 people, including children, and damaging residential buildings and energy infrastructure across multiple regions.
The deadliest strike hit Pryluky in Chernihiv region, where a Russian missile destroyed a five-story apartment building, killing 22 people as of Thursday morning, including five children—three of them just one year old. In Kyiv, two more bodies were discovered in a struck high-rise, bringing the capital’s toll to four dead, while falling drone debris killed two others in a suburb. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 100 people were injured nationwide and condemned the attacks as “one of the most vile strikes,” noting they coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s birthday. “This is the kind of birthday present that Putin gave himself: the killing of children, the killing of people,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address .
Ukraine’s Air Force reported Russia fired 70 missiles—many of them high-velocity ballistic munitions—and dozens of Shahed drones. Authorities said air defenses downed over 80% of 46 jet-powered drones, a sharp improvement from recent weeks . The strikes also targeted industrial and energy facilities, with officials in Kyiv reporting power cuts in several districts .
Early Thursday, Russia sent another wave of jet-powered drones toward Kyiv and western Ukraine, triggering fresh air raid alerts in the capital and regions including Lutsk, Ovruch, and Rivne. Ukrainian forces tracked the threats but had not confirmed new impacts by dawn .
