Kyiv attack kills 12, including Indian citizen, in Russia's sixth straight strike

Kyiv,UPDATED: Sep 1, 2026 16:00 IST

Russia launched a large overnight aerial assault on and around Kyiv into Tuesday morning, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than a dozen others, including three children, according to local authorities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said those killed included an Indian citizen.

The attack was the sixth straight day of heavy Russian strikes on Kyiv, which Ukrainian officials described as an unprecedented run of consecutive aerial assaults since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than four-and-a-half years ago. The assault also hit eight other regions of Ukraine on the day several million schoolchildren returned to classes for the new school year.

Authorities said civilian infrastructure and residential buildings were hit in several districts of Kyiv. Eight people were killed in the city and three others in the surrounding region. Six employees of the state-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia were among those killed in Kyiv after a ballistic missile hit a depot and other premises, company chairman Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said in a social media post. Zelenskyy said nearly 350 emergency workers were deployed in Kyiv and the surrounding region.

Ukraine's air force said Russia began the attack at 6 pm on Monday, using ballistic, cruise and anti-radar missiles, along with 218 drones and decoys. About a third of the drones were jet-powered, which are harder to intercept than propeller-driven ones. The air force said the main Russian targets were the Kyiv region and the southern Odesa region. In Kyiv, first responders worked to clear rubble from damaged apartment buildings and free trapped residents.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces carried out a "massive strike" overnight using "precision-guided weapons" and long-range drones. It said the targets were facilities involved in manufacturing and storing weapons, as well as military-related infrastructure.

In the Odesa region on the Black Sea, the attack damaged civilian infrastructure and injured one person, regional head Oleh Kiper said. Two residential buildings were damaged and a fire broke out at a textile factory. Russian forces also struck the Orlivka international ferry crossing on the border with Romania, he said. In the northern Zhytomyr region, Russian shelling caused fires at an industrial facility and a warehouse, Ukraine's Emergency Service said.

Ukrainian officials have said Moscow's aim is to wear down civilians by disrupting daily life. Meanwhile, Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defences intercepted 516 Ukrainian drones overnight over 18 Russian regions, as well as the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea. In Russia's Leningrad region, Governor Alexander Drozdenko said a drone attack caused a fire at the port of Ust-Luga, one of Russia's biggest oil and gas export terminals, which has been repeatedly targeted this year.

The overnight attack marked another major escalation in the war, with Kyiv and other regions coming under heavy fire, casualties reported in the Ukrainian capital and beyond, and both sides reporting strikes deep behind the front lines.

With PTI Inputs

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