Russia launches major drone, missile attack on Ukraine
Ukraine has accused Russia of pounding the country with “hundreds” of drones and missiles overnight, killing at least four people in the capital.
The attacks came after Russia warned NATO against taking sterner action in response to alleged incursions into airspace covered by the military alliance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that around 500 drones and more than 40 missiles had been launched during the attack.
“Moscow wants to continue fighting and killing and deserves only the harshest pressure from the world,” he said on the Telegram app.
In the wider Kyiv region Russian strikes have left at least 27 wounded, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that Moscow had carried out a massive strike on Ukraine, claiming to have hit military airfields and other facilities.
“Last night, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, sea-based weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles against enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine used in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the infrastructure of military airfields,” the ministry said in a statement.
The barrage also followed the revelation by Mr Zelenskyy that Kyiv had received a US-made Patriot air defence system from Israel for use against Russian assaults.
“Russia launched another massive air attack on Ukrainian cities while people were sleeping,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiga said on X.
“Again, hundreds of drones and missiles, destroying residential buildings and causing civilian casualties,” he said.
He posted footage of flames bursting from the windows of a multi-storey apartment block, with Mr Sybiga blaming the blaze on the attack.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha says Russia launched drone attacks on residential areas of Kyiv on September 28.
12-year-old girl among the dead
Timur Tkachenko, head of the military administration in the capital Kyiv, said the deaths included “a 12-year-old girl killed by Russians”.
More deaths could be uncovered as rescuers went about their jobs, he warned.
In the wider Kyiv region surrounding the capital, the Russian strikes left at least 27 wounded, Mykola Kalachnyk, the military administration’s head, said on Telegram.
The strikes that began overnight and continued after dawn on Sunday also targeted residential buildings, civilian infrastructure, a medical facility and a kindergarten, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who said damage was reported at more than 20 locations across the capital.
At Kyiv’s central train station, passengers arrived to the crackle of anti-aircraft gunfire and the low buzz of attack drones.
Mostly women, they waited quietly in a platform underpass until the air raid alert ended.
In the wider Kyiv region Russian strikes have left at least 27 wounded, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that Moscow had carried out a massive strike on Ukraine, claiming to have hit military airfields and other facilities.
“Last night, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, sea-based weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles against enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine used in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the infrastructure of military airfields,” the ministry said in a statement.
The barrage also followed the revelation by Mr Zelenskyy that Kyiv had received a US-made Patriot air defence system from Israel for use
Ukrainian leaders say Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles.
The strikes that began overnight and continued after dawn on Sunday also targeted residential buildings, civilian infrastructure, a medical facility and a kindergarten, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who said damage was reported at more than 20 locations across the capital.
At Kyiv’s central train station, passengers arrived to the crackle of anti-aircraft gunfire and the low buzz of attack drones.
Mostly women, they waited quietly in a platform underpass until the air raid alert ended.
Parents checked the news on their phones while children played online games.
“The sky has turned black again,” said one woman at the station, who gave only her first name, Erika.
“It’s happening a lot.”
The governor of the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region said Russian strikes there had injured at least four people.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, accused Moscow of waging a “war against civilians”, urging greater action from Kyiv’s Western allies.
“There will be a response to these actions. But the West’s economic blows against Russia must also be stronger,”
Yermak said.
Poland’s armed forces said on X that Warsaw had scrambled fighter jets in its airspace and put ground-based air defence systems on high alert in response to Russia’s strikes.
The moves were preventive and aimed at securing Polish airspace and protecting citizens, especially in areas close to Ukraine, they said.
‘They will regret it’
In recent weeks, several European countries have accused Russia of violating their airspace with drones and fighter jets, in what NATO has viewed as a test of its resolve.
Russia has denied that it is responsible for the incursions or that it plans to attack any NATO nation.
Speaking during an address at the UN General Assembly in New York on Saturday, Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response”.
Speaking later to reporters, Mr Lavrov said that if any country downs objects still within Russian airspace, “they will very much regret it”.
After returning from his own trip to New York, Mr Zelenskyy said that “the Israeli (Patriot) system is operating in Ukraine”, adding that Kyiv would receive two more this autumn.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defences shot down 41 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday.
While initially neutral in the conflict, Israel’s ties with Moscow have cooled as Russia has drifted closer to Iran and condemned Israel’s war in Gaza.
Kyiv and Moscow also said on Saturday that the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — had been off the grid for four days, stoking fears of a potential nuclear incident.
