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Russia has unleashed one of its most devastating attacks on Ukraine in weeks, and the death toll is rising.
At least 18 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in a massive overnight assault on major Ukrainian cities early Tuesday, as Russia fired 656 drones and 73 missiles across the country in strikes targeting Kyiv, Dnipro and the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Twelve of the dead, including two young boys, were killed in Dnipro, where a four-story apartment building was partially demolished. Around 50 buildings were damaged across the city. In Kyiv, at least six people were killed and close to 80 wounded, including three children, as strikes hit nine high-rise buildings, a kindergarten, a clinic and multiple administrative buildings. Power was cut to 140,000 residents.
Thousands of Kyiv residents flooded into the city's subway system seeking shelter, more than 41,000 people in total, the highest number recorded during a nighttime air raid alert in recent years. Some arrived carrying mattresses, pets and packed bags.
"We all expected something would happen," one Kyiv resident told NBC News. "Our emergency grab bags were already packed."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as a deliberate message from Moscow. "If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic and other missile strikes, these attacks will continue," he said on Telegram, adding that assistance from the United States in supplying Patriot missile interceptors was "absolutely necessary."
Zelenskyy sent a letter to President Trump and Congress last week requesting additional air defense systems. As of Monday, he had not received a response.
The attack marks the third heavy assault on Kyiv in under a month and follows explicit Russian warnings last week of "systematic" strikes on the capital. The Kremlin framed the assault as retaliation for a Ukrainian drone strike on a dormitory in Russian-held Luhansk last month, a strike Ukraine denies.
Ukraine's air force said it shot down or neutralized 40 missiles and 602 drones. The eight Zircon hypersonic missiles fired, which travel at nine times the speed of sound, were not listed among those intercepted.
