Russia has launched a large overnight air attack against Ukraine, firing almost 20 missiles and more than 400 drones, with Kyiv the main target and six people confirmed dead in the capital.
According to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, from the evening of 13 November into the early hours of 14 November Russian forces launched 19 missiles and 430 unmanned aerial vehicles of various types. Air defence radar detected a total of 449 aerial targets: 19 missiles, 13 of them ballistic, and 430 attack drones, including about 300 Shahed-type systems. By 09:30 local time, Ukrainian air defences had shot down or suppressed 419 of these targets.
The Air Force said the intercepted weapons included 405 Shahed, Gerbera and other attack drones, two Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles, six Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles and six Iskander-K or Kalibr cruise missiles. However, missile strikes and 23 attack drones reached 13 locations, with debris from downed weapons falling at a further 44 sites across the country.
Officials said the main axis of the strike was Kyiv. Other regions reporting consequences included Kyiv region, Kharkiv, Odesa, Poltava and Cherkasy. The military described the operation as a combined attack on critical infrastructure using drones and missiles launched from air, land and sea, including from Russian regions bordering Ukraine, occupied Crimea and the Black Sea.
In Kyiv, local authorities reported that four people were killed in the Desnianskyi district when a Shahed drone struck a multi-storey residential building, damaging several floors. A spokesperson for the State Emergency Service said the drone had effectively “pierced” part of the structure. Search and rescue teams were continuing work at the site on Friday morning as they extinguished fires and cleared debris.
The Kyiv city administration and prosecutors stated that at least 27 people in the capital were injured, among them two children. City officials said a 10-year-old boy was taken to a children’s hospital and that a pregnant woman was among nine people initially hospitalised. Others received treatment at the scene or as outpatients. National police later reported that about 30 residential buildings in nine districts had been damaged, along with medical facilities, public transport and vehicles.
Damage from falling missile and drone debris was reported in multiple parts of Kyiv, including Desnianskyi, Dniprovskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, Obolonskyi, Podilskyi, Solomianskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts. Local reports said parts of Desnianskyi district temporarily lost heating because of damage to thermal networks, and road closures and delays to public transport were introduced while emergency services worked at the impact sites.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement that Russia had used about 430 drones and 18 missiles in the overnight strike, describing the attack as carefully planned to inflict maximum harm on civilians and civilian infrastructure. He said that four people had been killed and “dozens” injured nationwide, including children and a pregnant woman, and noted that debris from an Iskander missile had damaged the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Kyiv.
The Air Force account of the attack listed 430 Shahed, Gerbera and other drones launched from Kursk, Millerovo, Oryol, Bryansk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia, as well as from the Hvardiyiske airfield in occupied Crimea. It said three Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles were launched from Russia’s Ryazan region, one Zircon anti-ship missile, six Iskander-K or Kalibr cruise missiles from occupied Crimea and the Black Sea, and nine Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles from Bryansk region.
Ukraine’s air defence response combined fighter aircraft, ground-based air defence missile systems, electronic warfare units, unmanned systems and mobile fire groups mounted on vehicles. Officials said new groups of attack drones were still appearing in Ukrainian airspace on Friday morning, and described the operation as ongoing at the time of their latest update.
The strike follows earlier large-scale missile and drone barrages against Ukraine’s power generation and transmission network, as well as industrial and transport facilities. Ukrainian officials say the current pattern of attacks is aimed at degrading energy infrastructure and putting sustained pressure on air defence assets ahead of the winter period.
Zelenskyy said emergency services were restoring electricity, heating and water supplies where they had been disrupted, and repeated calls for strengthened sanctions on Russia’s energy exports and for continued supplies of air defence systems and missiles to Ukraine.
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