In the early hours of December 27, 2025, Kyiv was jolted awake by a barrage of Russian missiles and drones, marking one of the most intense attacks on the Ukrainian capital since the full-scale invasion began nearly four years ago. As sirens wailed and explosions echoed through the city, residents huddled in fear, bracing for the worst. The assault, which began just before 2 a.m. local time, unleashed Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, Iskander ballistic missiles, and Kalibr cruise missiles upon Kyiv, according to monitoring channels and reports from The Kyiv Independent.
For nearly ten hours, the air raid alert persisted, only being lifted after 11 a.m. But Kyiv’s ordeal was far from over. Another wave of drones struck around noon, prolonging the terror until early afternoon. Fires broke out across the city, with drones and falling debris slamming into apartment blocks and igniting blazes that spread floor by floor. In the Holosiivskyi district, a fire raged, while debris fell in the Obolonskyi and Desnianskyi districts, damaging homes and vehicles, The Kyiv Independent reported. In Shevchenkivsky District, an apartment building on Oleny Telihy Street was hit at 10:30 a.m., shattering windows and leaving residents like 73-year-old Liubov Chernenko in shock. "My kitchen window was knocked out, the doors in one room as well," Chernenko said. "The other rooms are fine, just full of smoke and dust. My neighbor on the fourth floor said her balcony was completely gone. My balcony is damaged too, but I can’t get there to check it."
The human toll quickly mounted. At least 32 people were injured in Kyiv, including two children, and two people lost their lives—an elderly man in Dniprovskyi district and another person in Bila Tserka, Kyiv Oblast, according to the Kyiv Police Force and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. One person was believed to be trapped under rubble in an 18-story building in Dniprovskyi district, as first responders worked desperately at five separate locations to rescue survivors and extinguish fires.
As the sun rose over a battered city, the scale of the devastation became clear. More than 500,000 families in Kyiv found themselves without power as a result of the missile and drone strikes, Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK confirmed. The attacks cut off heat to a third of the capital, affecting approximately 4,000 residential buildings—a dire situation given the freezing winter temperatures. Water supply was also disrupted for some households, compounding the hardship for thousands of residents. Engineers and energy workers raced to restore power to critical infrastructure, prioritizing transportation and water supply systems. "The situation is difficult, but everyone is working to ensure that Kyiv residents have light and heat," DTEK said in a statement cited by Kyiv Independent.
Russian drones targeted not only residential areas but also vital infrastructure. Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas giant, reported that a gas production facility and a combined heat and power plant were struck. "It is clear that these attacks are synchronized with the drop in temperatures. The enemy is trying to exploit freezing weather and peak demand in order to disable the system," said Naftogaz CEO Serhii Koretskyi. The ongoing energy outages have become routine for Kyiv in recent months, with some households left without electricity for up to 15 hours per day.
The attack’s impact was felt beyond the city limits. Power outages were reported in Brovary, a town about 20 kilometers northeast of Kyiv, and in Vyshhorod, five kilometers north of the capital, several windows in a high-rise were shattered. In Boryspil district, warehouses and cars sustained damage. The strikes also reached western Ukraine, with one person injured in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. In response to the scale of the assault, Polish military aircraft were mobilized overnight to secure airspace, as reported by Poland’s Armed Forces.
The timing of the attack was no coincidence. As Kyiv reeled from the devastation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was preparing for a high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump in Florida on December 28, 2025. The two leaders were set to discuss a series of Ukraine-Europe proposals aimed at ending Russia’s invasion. According to BBC, Zelensky outlined plans for Ukraine’s reconstruction through 2040, estimating the cost at $700-800 billion and announcing the creation of several investment funds, including the Ukraine Building Fund and the US–Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. "There are good ideas that can work toward a shared outcome and the lasting peace. Real security, real recovery, and real peace are what all of us need – Ukraine, the United States, Europe, and every partner who helps us," Zelensky told the Ukrainian people.
The Kremlin, however, was far from pleased. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov criticized the Ukraine-Europe proposal, claiming it "differs radically" from the ultimatum developed with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in late October, which demanded the surrender of Ukrainian territory and Kyiv’s perpetual military and political weakness. "Our ability to make the final push and reach an agreement will depend on our own work and the political will of the other party," Ryabkov said, accusing Kyiv and its European sponsors of "stepping up efforts to torpedo it." He insisted that any deal must "remain within the limits" fixed by Trump and Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Alaska in August, or else "no accord can be reached." Meanwhile, Trump told Politico, "[Zelensky] doesn’t have anything until I approve it. So we’ll see what he’s got."
As diplomatic maneuvering continued, the war’s violence showed no sign of abating. Ukrainian President Zelensky accused Russia of using apartment blocks in Belarus to guide attack drones toward western Ukraine, a claim supported by satellite imagery analyzed by US researchers Jeffrey Lewis and Decker Eveleth. They reported evidence of hurried construction at a former airbase near Krichev, likely for the deployment of Oreshnik nuclear-capable hypersonic ballistic missiles. The presence of a "military-grade rail transfer point" was described as a "dead giveaway" of a new Russian strategic missile base.
The international dimension of the conflict grew even more complex as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered a New Year’s greeting to Vladimir Putin, celebrating North Korea’s support for Russia’s invasion. Kim cited 2025 as a "really meaningful year" for an alliance consolidated by "sharing blood, life and death in the same trench." North Korea has reportedly supplied missiles, millions of artillery shells, and even dispatched troops to aid Moscow’s war effort.
Meanwhile, the Russian crackdown on dissent continued unabated. On December 27, a Moscow court sentenced Galina Timchenko, co-founder and CEO of the independent Russian news outlet Meduza, to five years in prison in absentia for leading an "undesirable" organization. Timchenko was also barred from holding leadership positions for five years, following Meduza’s designation as "undesirable" in 2023 and her being declared a "foreign agent" in 2024.
Tragedy struck the Russian Volunteer Corps, a paramilitary group of Russian citizens fighting for Ukraine, when its leader Denis Kapustin was killed in a drone strike in Zaporizhzhia region. Kapustin had previously been sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in Russia on charges of treason and terrorism.
As Kyiv’s residents begin to pick up the pieces—sweeping glass from shattered windows, patching up damaged homes, and waiting for the lights to flicker back on—the city remains defiant. "They were bombing us all night. I heard explosions all night. Most seemed far away, but I still barely slept," Chernenko recalled. The resilience of Ukrainians, tested yet again, stands as a testament to their determination to endure, even as the specter of war and political uncertainty looms ever larger.
