Russia Launches Massive Drone and Missile Assault on Ukraine, Killing at Least 18

Russia carried out one of its largest aerial assaults in months on Ukraine overnight, launching hundreds of drones and missiles that killed at least 18 people across several cities, according to Ukrainian officials.

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Authorities said the attacks struck multiple regions in waves, hitting major urban centres including Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipro. The barrage also coincided with Ukrainian drone strikes inside Russia, where officials reported two fatalities.

The escalation follows a brief ceasefire over Orthodox Easter last weekend, during which both sides accused each other of repeatedly violating the truce.

Deadly strikes across major cities

Local officials reported the highest death toll in the southern port city of Odesa, where nine people were killed in the strikes. Five others died in the central city of Dnipro.

In the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, four people were killed, including a 12-year-old boy, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Authorities said 45 people were injured in the city.

Air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv at around 02:30 local time on Thursday, followed by explosions shortly afterward. Footage shared online showed fires burning in central districts and large plumes of smoke rising into the sky. One video appeared to show a drone crashing into the side of a residential apartment building.

Emergency workers later pulled a mother and child from the rubble of a collapsed 16-storey building in the Podil district, Klitschko said. Four emergency medical workers were also among those injured in the northern part of the capital.

In Dnipro, regional head Oleksandr Ganzha initially said four people had been killed and around a dozen injured. City Mayor Borys Filatov later confirmed that another body had been discovered, raising the death toll there to five.

Elsewhere, in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, a drone strike injured two civilians — a 77-year-old woman and a 66-year-old man.

Officials also said the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson were left without electricity following the attacks.

Hundreds of drones and missiles launched

Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia fired 659 drones along with 44 cruise and ballistic missiles during the previous 24 hours.

According to the military, Ukrainian air defences shot down 636 drones and 31 missiles. However, officials said strikes still hit 26 locations across the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the bombardment, saying it demonstrated the need for continued international pressure on Moscow.

Writing on X, he argued that sanctions imposed by the United States and European allies should not be weakened. “Russia is betting on war,” Zelensky said, adding that protecting lives and pushing for peace must remain priorities.

Earlier in the week, Zelensky warned that Ukraine was facing a severe shortage of Patriot air defence missiles, which are capable of intercepting ballistic missiles.

Global supplies of the US-made systems are limited, and many have reportedly been redirected to the Middle East since the United States and Israel began military operations against Iran in February.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the latest Russian assault as a “war crime” and urged Ukraine’s allies to increase sanctions pressure on Moscow while expanding military support for Kyiv.

Strikes reported inside Russia

Russian officials also reported casualties from Ukrainian attacks. In the southern Krasnodar region, two people — including a 14-year-old girl — were killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in the city of Tuapse, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev. Five others were reported injured.

The war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has now entered its fifth year.

Although several rounds of peace talks have taken place with the United States acting as a mediator, negotiations have stalled after Washington shifted diplomatic attention toward the conflict in the Middle East.

Ukraine has repeatedly called for a comprehensive ceasefire as the first step toward a negotiated settlement. Russia, however, insists that a broader peace agreement must be reached before any ceasefire is implemented, a stance Kyiv says shows Moscow is not genuinely pursuing an end to the war.

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Adapted by ASEAN Now. Source 17 April 2026