In the early hours of October 22, 2025, Ukraine awoke to one of the most intense aerial assaults in recent months, as Russian drones and missiles rained down across the country. The attacks, which struck ten regions including the capital Kyiv and the eastern city of Kharkiv, left at least seven people dead—among them two children—and dozens more wounded. The strikes came at a time when diplomatic efforts to end the war appeared to stall, with a much-anticipated summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin abruptly put on hold.
According to Ukrainian officials cited by BBC and ABC News, the barrage included 405 drones and 28 missiles, of which Ukrainian air defenses managed to intercept 333 drones and 16 missiles. Despite these efforts, the devastation was widespread. In Kyiv, high-rise apartments and residential neighborhoods bore the brunt of the assault. Firefighters and rescue teams scrambled through the night, pulling survivors from burning buildings and evacuating families in the aftermath. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported that at least 29 people were injured in Kyiv alone, including five children. Emergency power outages were imposed as energy infrastructure was also targeted, plunging parts of the city into darkness and cutting off water supplies.
Tragedy struck particularly hard in the Brovary district of Kyiv, where a drone set a private house ablaze, killing a woman and her two daughters—one just six months old, the other twelve years old. In the words of regional head Mykola Kalashnyk, "Their bodies were found at the site of the fire. This is a tragedy for the entire community, for the Kyiv region, and for the country." Another man in the area died of shrapnel wounds, and many others suffered injuries from flying debris and collapsing structures.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, faced its own horrors. A kindergarten filled with nearly 50 children was struck directly by a Russian drone. Local officials and footage shared by Straight Arrow News showed authorities carrying terrified toddlers from the ruins. At least ten people, including a five-year-old girl, were injured. Forty-eight children were evacuated and, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted, many are now experiencing "acute stress reactions." He added, "There is and cannot be any justification for a drone strike on a kindergarten." The images released by Ukraine’s State Emergency Service—firefighters clutching soot-covered, wide-eyed toddlers—quickly spread across social media, fueling outrage and sorrow in equal measure.
Elsewhere, the attacks extended to cities like Zaporizhzhia and the port city of Izmail, with energy facilities and residential buildings suffering significant damage. According to CBC News, the strikes caused emergency blackouts in multiple regions. Ukraine’s energy minister described the assault as a "massive combined overnight attack" aimed at crippling the country’s power grid as winter approaches. "Another night that proves Russia does not feel enough pressure for prolonging the war," Zelenskyy said in a statement, urging the European Union, the United States, and the G7 to respond with unified sanctions against Moscow.
In the wake of the onslaught, diplomatic hopes dimmed. Just hours before the strikes, the White House announced that a planned summit between President Trump and President Putin in Hungary had been shelved. The decision followed a reportedly tense phone call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. While U.S. officials described the call as "productive," it became clear that Russia was unwilling to agree to a ceasefire along the current front lines—a key point in Trump’s proposed peace plan. According to NBC News, Lavrov reiterated Russia’s demand for major territorial concessions from Ukraine and international recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a stance that remains unacceptable to Kyiv and most of the international community.
President Zelenskyy, speaking from Oslo after meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, directly linked the collapse of the summit to his country’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles—a plea that Trump declined to grant during their meeting in Washington the previous week. "As soon as the issue of long-range missiles became a little further away for us, for Ukraine, then almost automatically Russia became less interested in diplomacy," Zelenskyy remarked to reporters in Norway. He called Trump’s suggestion to freeze the front lines "a good compromise," but added, "I'm not sure that Putin will support it and I said it to the president."
While the U.S. hesitated to provide Tomahawks, Ukraine continued to seek military support from European allies. On October 22, Zelenskyy and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson signed a letter of intent for Sweden to supply up to 150 domestically produced Gripen fighter jets over the next 10 to 15 years, with the first deliveries expected within three years. Norway, meanwhile, pledged $150 million to support Ukrainian gas purchases for the winter. These moves, reported by The Hill and BBC, underscore Kyiv’s urgent need for international aid as Russia’s campaign against civilian infrastructure intensifies.
Ukraine also struck back. On October 21, Ukrainian forces targeted a Russian chemical plant in the Bryansk region with British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, according to Ukrainian military officials. The plant, they said, produces gunpowder, explosives, and rocket fuel used in Russian munitions. The Russian defense ministry, for its part, claimed to have shot down 33 Ukrainian drones overnight and reported the temporary suspension of flights at eight airports amid the attacks.
Amid the violence, ordinary Ukrainians endured another night of terror and loss. In Kyiv, a shop employee named Nadiia Zinchuk described the chaos: "At 7:20 a.m., there was an explosion, and within a moment, I started to feel pain on my face. I immediately started screaming. When I swiped my face, I thought I felt tears on my hand, but I was bleeding." Others, like Mykola Laroshynskyi in Pohreby, recounted seeing the drone “like a bird and that was it,” before a split-second explosion changed everything.
As the dust settles, the attacks have reignited calls for a stronger international response. Hours after the strikes, President Trump imposed new sanctions on Russia, targeting major oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft—his administration’s first such move in his second term. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged allies to join the effort and pressed Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, though few in Ukraine expect a quick end to the violence. For now, as families mourn and cities brace for further attacks, the war’s human cost continues to mount, and the path to peace remains as uncertain as ever.
