ALBAWABA- Russia launched one of its most intense assaults on Ukraine since 2022, unleashing hundreds of kamikaze drones and missiles on residential neighborhoods in Kyiv and other cities.
The overnight attack left at least four people dead, including a 12-year-old girl, and injured more than 40 others.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russian forces fired approximately 595 drones and 48 missiles in a 12-hour barrage.
Ukrainian air defenses intercepted most of them, 568 drones and 43 missiles, but several penetrated defenses, striking apartment blocks, a cardiology clinic, and factories in the capital.
Firefighters battled blazes amid detonating ammunition, while rescuers pulled survivors from shattered homes. Among the dead were a mother and her infant, killed when their building collapsed.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the “ruthless attack,” which also damaged Kyiv’s main government building, vowing a strong response.
European leaders expressed outrage, with French President Emmanuel Macron accusing Moscow of pursuing a “logic of war and terror.”
The attack comes as Russia presses slow but steady advances on the eastern front and Ukraine pushes for greater Western support.
Kyiv has requested long-range U.S. Tomahawk missiles, a move that Washington is still considering. Meanwhile, concerns mount over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which has now been without external power for five days, raising fears of a safety crisis.
Moscow insists its strikes were aimed at military-industrial sites, but Ukrainian and international officials say civilian areas bore the brunt of the assault. With Iran-supplied Shahed drones now a key weapon in Russia’s arsenal, Kyiv is urging Western allies to accelerate delivery of advanced air defense systems.
