In the early hours of October 26, 2025, Kyiv awoke to the now-familiar wail of air raid sirens and the thunder of explosions as Russia unleashed a barrage of drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital. The strikes, described by officials as one of the most intense in recent weeks, killed three civilians and wounded at least 31 others, including six children, leaving a trail of devastation in residential neighborhoods and reigniting calls for stronger international action.
According to Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, among those killed were a 19-year-old woman and her 46-year-old mother, both caught in their home when a drone struck. The attacks set two high-rise apartment buildings ablaze in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district, forcing emergency crews to evacuate residents from the smoke-filled structures, extinguish flames, and clear rubble in a desperate bid to save lives. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported that seven of the injured, including two children, were hospitalized, and 13 people were rescued from the upper floors of the damaged buildings by emergency services.
Residents recounted harrowing moments as the drones struck. Olha Yevhenivha, 74, described how thick smoke made it impossible to escape her apartment: “Even until now our windows are totally black from the smoke, and it was impossible to go down, so that’s why we put wet blankets on our doors and balcony,” she told the Associated Press. For others, survival was a matter of seconds and luck. Ihor Motchanyi, a local soccer player, said he and his parents “miraculously survived” after a drone sparked a fire in their home the day after his 25th birthday. “My mother and I left. My father stayed behind in the apartment and wanted to take some documents, the most important things. He couldn’t get out because there was a fire, so he jumped down from the (third) floor into a nearby tree,” Motchanyi recounted to AP reporters. The family, shaken by the ordeal, planned to leave Kyiv temporarily to stay with relatives in a village.
Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia launched 101 drones overnight, of which 90 were intercepted and neutralized. Still, five drones managed to hit four locations, and debris from downed drones fell on five other sites across the capital. The Ukrainian military said that roughly 60 of the drones were Iranian-designed Shaheds, a model that has become a symbol of the relentless aerial campaign against Ukrainian cities. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a message posted to Telegram, lamented, “Every Russian strike is an attempt to inflict as much damage as possible on ordinary life.” He called for “additional tariff and sanctions restrictions against Russia and all those helping it stay afloat.”
The attacks on Kyiv were part of a broader escalation. Ukrainian authorities said that nearly 1,200 drones had been launched at targets across the country in the past week alone, alongside more than 1,360 guided aerial bombs and over 50 missiles. The Desnianskyi district was particularly hard-hit, with a nine-story apartment building suffering a fire that engulfed several floors, and at least three other residential buildings in Kyiv sustaining damage. Seven people, including two children, were being treated in hospital for injuries ranging from burns to shrapnel wounds, Kyiv officials told BBC News.
The unrelenting assault came just one day after a separate missile and drone attack killed four people, including two in Kyiv, highlighting what Ukrainian leaders describe as a deliberate strategy by Moscow to terrorize civilians and cripple essential infrastructure ahead of winter. “Russia is hitting residential areas so that as many civilians as possible are affected,” Klymenko said. Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže echoed this sentiment, stating, “Killed, injured children, destroyed hospitals, apartments. It’s targeted and intentional.”
In response, President Zelenskyy renewed his pleas to Western allies for advanced air defense systems and long-range weapons. However, his recent visits to the White House and an EU summit yielded little in the way of new military support. As Zelenskyy returned empty-handed, U.S. President Donald Trump announced fresh sanctions targeting Russia’s largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil—the first such move in his current term. The European Union followed suit, adopting its 19th sanctions package aimed at squeezing Russia’s energy profits and financial institutions. Still, the effectiveness of these measures remains a subject of debate, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissing the latest U.S. actions as “unfriendly” but insisting that Moscow “wished to build good relations with all countries, including the United States.”
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts to end the war appear stalled. Trump, who had previously floated the idea of a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, shelved those plans, citing a lack of progress and “disappointing” developments. “Talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin don’t go anywhere,” Trump said, expressing frustration with Moscow’s rigid conditions for peace. Ukraine has signaled willingness to cease fighting along current front lines as a starting point for negotiations, but Russia continues to demand a full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the eastern Donbas region—a non-starter for Kyiv.
Despite the impasse, there are faint signs of movement. Senior Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, after meetings with U.S. officials in Washington, told CNN, “It’s a big move by President Zelensky to already acknowledge that it’s about battle lines. You know, his previous position was that Russia should leave completely so actually, I think we are reasonably close to a diplomatic solution that can be worked out.” Whether such optimism is warranted remains to be seen, as both sides continue to exchange fire and civilians bear the brunt of the violence.
Adding to the tension, President Putin announced on Sunday that Russia had successfully tested a new atomic-powered missile, described as having a potentially unlimited range and the ability to evade missile defenses. The Burevestnik cruise missile, according to Russian military officials, covered approximately 14,000 kilometers in a 15-hour test flight just days earlier. The announcement comes amid nuclear drills and renewed Kremlin warnings against Western intervention, underscoring the high stakes and unpredictability of the conflict.
As the dust settled in Kyiv, the city’s battered residents began the slow process of recovery—boarding up shattered windows, clearing debris, and mourning loved ones lost to yet another night of violence. The war, now dragging into its fourth year, shows little sign of abating. For many in Ukraine, the latest attacks are a grim reminder of their vulnerability and the urgent need for both defensive aid and a path to peace.
