Russian forces unleashed hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 18 civilians and wounding more than 100, authorities said Tuesday.
In Dnipro, 12 people were killed, including a 3-year-old child and a mother with her 8-year-old son. Emergency crews pulled their bodies from the rubble of apartment buildings. In Kyiv, six people died and 64 were wounded. The attack stretched from night into day, with explosions echoing across cities.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more U.S. and European support, calling the assault "an explicit statement by Russia: If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those strikes will continue."
Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones, targeting Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian air defense destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 drones. The Russian strategy exploits Ukraine's shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles, with international stocks depleted by the Iran war.
In Kyiv, 65-year-old Olena Dniprovska described the attack: "I went out into the corridor with the phone, and before I understood what happened, everything fell on my head, the glass, and the door blew off." Her apartment was completely destroyed.
In Kharkiv, at least 14 people were wounded and a four-story apartment block collapsed, trapping residents. Russia's Defense Ministry said it launched a "massive" strike with long-range precision weapons on military-industrial facilities.
President Vladimir Putin warned the attacks will continue, citing a recent Ukrainian drone strike as giving the war "a whole new dimension." U.S.-led peace efforts have stalled after Zelenskyy accepted an unconditional ceasefire but Putin refused.