Kyiv Residents Awakened By Drone Blasts

By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Residents were awakened in the capital Kyiv as Russia hit Ukraine with drones and missiles in the early hours of Thursday, witnesses said.

“It was a hard night again. At the moment it’s drones aiming for Kyiv,” a Dutch entrepreneur working in the region explained.

Kyiv authorities, who earlier issued a drone attack alert, said on social media platform Telegram that debris had fallen in the courtyard of a residential building and damage was being clarified.

Ukraine’s Armed Forces separately issued a ballistic missile alert for Kyiv.

In Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in central Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, two people were injured after two ballistic missiles targeted the city, with an industrial facility hit. Three more people were wounded in Zaporizhzhia, officials said.

EXPLOSIONS ROCK KYIV

Other cities, including Kharkiv, Odesa and Kremenchuk, were reportedly also targeted as air raid warnings spread across much of Ukraine.

Multiple explosions rocked Kyiv around 3 a.m. local time as air defenses responded to incoming missiles and drones.

Authorities said debris also fell on the grounds of an educational institution in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district, while debris near a residential building was reported in the Podilskyi district.

The latest barrage followed several particularly deadly Russian attacks on Ukraine in recent days.

Last week, Russian missile and drone strikes killed 17 people and injured more than 40 in Kyiv and the surrounding region.

DEADLY RUSSIAN ATTACKS

A day later, at least 16 people were killed and more than 130 wounded when Russian drones struck a crowded shopping center in Kryvyi Rih.

Four others, including three children, were killed in a separate Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region that day.

The United Nations has reported a broader deterioration in civilian safety, with 1,396 civilians killed and 7,978 injured in Ukraine during the first six months of 2026, a 37 percent increase in civilian casualties compared with the same period last year.

The full extent of casualties and damage from Thursday’s overnight Russian barrage was not immediately clear as authorities continued assessing the impact.

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