Russia carried out one of the largest bombardments of Ukraine’s capital since the beginning of its invasion more than four years ago, killing at least four people and damaging schools and residential buildings overnight on Saturday.
The hours-long barrage included the launch of an advanced ballistic Oreshnik missile, which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, at Bila Tserkva, a city of 200,000 people some 50 miles south of Kyiv.
According to Ukraine’s Air Force, the attack included 600 strike drones and 90 air, sea and ground-launched missiles, some of which were destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses.
Read More: How Ukraine Found the Cards To Win, Without Help From the U.S.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram that several schools and residential buildings were hit, and three missiles were launched towards a water supply facility. Emergency services noted 50 locations across several districts of the capital that were damaged.
“They are waging war solely against our people – against our memory, our history, and everything that makes up normal human life,” Zelensky wrote on X Sunday. “It is important that Russia understands that they will be held accountable for all these crimes.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram Sunday that rescue workers were assisting citizens and clearing rubble. “It was a terrible night for Kyiv…” he said from the site of an attack. Klitschko confirmed that two people were killed in the city, while the officials of the surrounding region confirmed two more deaths there.
E.U. accuses Russia of nuclear brinkmanship
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, called the use of the Oreshnik missile a “political scare-tactic and reckless nuclear-brinkmanship.” This is the third time the Oreshnik has been used in the conflict: first in Dnipro in November 2024, and then again earlier this year in the Lviv region. The missile is a nuclear-capable, intermediate-range hypersonic missile that can hit targets nearly 3,500 miles away.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed responsibility for the strikes, and confirmed the use of the Oreshnik missile, calling the move retaliation for Ukraine’s attacks on “civilian facilities on Russian territory.”
Russia accused Ukraine of a deadly drone attack on Friday that hit a student dormitory in Starobilsk, a Russian-controlled city in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, killing 21 people and injuring 42 others.
Ukraine has denied the attack, saying it had struck an elite drone command unit in the area. At a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting on the strike, Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Melnyk said that Ukraine “exclusively targeted the Russian war machine” in Friday’s attacks.
Struggling to shoot down missiles
Ukrainian Air Defense Forces claimed on Sunday that it jammed 549 drones and 55 missiles, while around 19 missiles failed to reach targets.
“Unfortunately, not all of the ballistic missiles were intercepted – the largest number of hits was in Kyiv,” Zelensky said in a Telegram post.
Ukraine is currently experiencing a shortage of air defense missiles that it would usually use to shoot down Russian missiles. U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles have been especially effective against Russian missile attacks, but Kyiv has run low as the U.S. and its Gulf allies burned through stockpiles to defend against missile and drone attacks from Iran.
Read More: The U.S. is Facing an Ammunition Shortage Due to the Iran War.
Zelensky has said that any Patriot missiles launched elsewhere in the world affect Ukraine’s own supply and has called on Europe to work towards defense independence.
“I believe Europe should be able to produce everything it needs to defend against everything – all the ballistic attacks and all other weapons – on its own,” he told European leaders in May.
The use of the Oreshnik missiles poses an even more complex problem for Ukraine: the country has no missiles to defend against it, and even the Patriot system was not designed to counter something of its speed.
