Oreshnik missile – Russia launched an overnight drone-and-missile attack on Kyiv that killed at least four people and injured dozens, with air defenses intercepting most incoming targets. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the assault included the rarely used Oreshnik ballistic m
Explosions rolled across Kyiv through the night as air raid sirens rose and never fully let go. By morning, the damage spread across neighborhoods and public buildings, with fires breaking out as emergency crews moved through damaged apartment blocks, supermarkets, and warehouses.
President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that Russia’s large-scale drone and missile assault killed at least four people and injured dozens. He said the attack included the Oreshnik ballistic missile, a powerful system that has been used only a handful of times during the more than four-year war.
Zelensky said the Oreshnik struck near the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region. The wider barrage, Ukraine’s Air Force said, included around 600 drones and 90 missiles launched from air, sea, and ground platforms. Air defenses intercepted most incoming targets, but damage was recorded across at least 40 locations in and around the capital.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said damage was recorded at 40 sites across multiple districts of the city in a post on Telegram. The strikes were reported near government offices, residential buildings, and schools.
For people waking up to the wreckage, the loss was personal and immediate. Kyiv resident Svitlana Onofryichuk, 55, has worked in the market that was damaged for 22 years. “It was a terrible night, and there had never been anything like it in the entire war,” she said. “I am very sorry that I have to say goodbye to Kyiv now. I am not staying there anymore. there is no possibility. ” she added. “My job is gone, everything is gone, everything has burned down.”.
The use of the Oreshnik marked the third time the system has been deployed during the war, according to Ukrainian officials. Ukraine has described it as nuclear-capable and hypersonic, with the ability to travel at speeds exceeding Mach 10, and said it can carry nuclear or conventional warheads.
Russian officials have also claimed that the weapon can evade missile defenses and strike hardened underground targets. though those claims cannot be independently verified. Even if the technical specifics remain contested. the impact on the ground was clear: explosions heard across the city. fires in multiple districts. and damage reported across dozens of locations.
The Oreshnik is among Russia’s newest missile systems. It has been used sparingly compared with other systems that have been deployed more often. including cruise missiles. Iskander ballistic missiles. and long-range drones. Russia first used the Oreshnik in a strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024 and again in the western Lviv region in January.
The Institute for the Study of War. a U.S.-based research group. said the Oreshnik is likely an experimental variant of Russia’s RS-26 “Rubezh” intermediate-range ballistic missile. ISW said it is equipped with multiple reentry vehicles designed to complicate interception and overwhelm air defense systems.
What came before the Oreshnik mattered too. The latest attack followed Ukraine stepping up long-range drone strikes inside Russia in recent weeks, targeting military and energy infrastructure and hitting areas near Moscow.
In Kyiv, the sequence of night-long impacts left residents calculating not just the damage, but what it means for their lives going forward. For people like Onofryichuk, the night did not end with the all-clear—she said she is leaving because the work and the place she has known are gone.
Kyiv Oreshnik missile Volodymyr Zelensky Bila Tserkva drone and missile assault air defenses Russia-Ukraine war Tymur Tkachenko Svitlana Onofryichuk