Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Russia launched a massive overnight attack using 40 missiles and approximately 580 drones against Ukrainian targets, with F-16 fighter jets playing a key role in the country’s defense.
Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russian forces deployed 619 air attack assets: 579 Shahed-type strike drones and various decoy drones, 8 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles, and 32 Kh-101 cruise missiles.
“Each such strike is not a military necessity, but a conscious strategy of Russia to intimidate civilians and destroy our infrastructure. That is why a strong international response is needed,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Ukrainian air defenses successfully intercepted 583 aerial targets, including 552 Russian drones, 2 ballistic missiles, and 29 cruise missiles, according to the Air Force. The defense forces recorded direct hits at 10 locations, with debris from destroyed targets falling at additional sites.
Russian forces regularly attack Ukrainian oblasts using various weapons including strike drones, missiles, guided aerial bombs, and multiple rocket launcher systems. Russia’s leadership denies that its military deliberately targets civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian cities and villages during the full-scale war, killing civilians and destroying hospitals, schools, kindergartens, energy facilities, and water supply systems.
Ukrainian authorities and international organizations qualify these strikes as war crimes by the Russian Federation, emphasizing their deliberate nature
Zelenskyy thanked Ukrainian military personnel, particularly F-16 fighter pilots, “who once again proved their skill and worked effectively in defending Ukraine from cruise missiles.”
The attack targeted Ukrainian infrastructure, residential areas, and civilian enterprises, according to Zelenskyy.
In Dnipro, a Russian missile with cluster munitions directly hit a multi-story residential building. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Serhii Lysak confirmed one fatality and 26 injuries in the oblast, with 14 people requiring hospitalization, including a 55-year-old man with burns covering 70% of his body.
Khmelnytskyi Governor Serhii Tiurin reported finding the body of a man in his 50s in a home after firefighters extinguished a blaze, with two others injured in the oblast.
In Kyiv Oblast, the State Emergency Service reported car fires at a parking lot near a multi-story building in Bucha district, and a fire with partial destruction of a private residential house in Obukhiv district. The regional military administration confirmed strikes in Bucha, Boryspil, and Obukhiv communities, damaging a home, 10 garages, and five parked cars.
Mykolaiv faced attacks from both ballistic missiles and drones targeting industrial infrastructure, with ongoing firefighting efforts, according to local reports. Drones also struck a farm in Sniguriv community, causing fires there as well.
Odesa Oblast emergency services reported a warehouse fire at a farm facility and destruction of an agricultural equipment storage building.
The attack affected multiple oblasts including Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, and communities in Poltava, Sumy, and Kharkiv oblasts. Overall casualty reports indicate dozens of injured and three fatalities from the assault.
The assault triggered air raid alerts across all Ukrainian oblasts around 5:45 am local time, lasting until approximately 7 am Initial explosions occurred in Pavlohrad and Mykolaiv around 4:40 am, with additional blasts in Dnipro after 6 a.m.
During the attack, Poland’s Air Force scrambled NATO fighter jets to protect Polish airspace. The incident follows recent violations of NATO airspace, including Russian drones over Polish territory and Estonian airspace violations that prompted Estonia to request NATO Article 4 consultations.