Russian forces launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 80, according to Ukrainian officials. The assault, which lasted several hours and struck all ten of the capital’s districts, caused fires and partial collapses in multiple residential buildings, including a nine-storey block where emergency crews searched for survivors. President Volodymyr Zelensky had cut short a visit to Dublin hours earlier, citing intelligence of an imminent “massive strike”, and urged residents to take shelter in metro stations.

Moscow’s Defence Ministry described the operation as a “massive strike” using long-range, high-precision weapons launched from air, land and sea platforms, combined with drones. It said the targets were military-industrial enterprises, energy facilities and military airfields in Kyiv and several other regions, and presented the barrage as a response to what it called Ukrainian “terrorist attacks” on Russian civil infrastructure. Kyiv rejected that framing, with Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha calling the attack a “night of horror” and demanding that allies not delay decisions on supplying additional air-defence systems. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she would propose new sanctions against entities supporting Russia’s military-industrial complex.

The strike is the deadliest on the Ukrainian capital since mid-June and forms part of an escalating cycle of long-range attacks. Ukraine has in recent weeks intensified drone strikes deep inside Russian territory, hitting oil refineries and military sites and triggering fuel shortages that have forced Moscow to import gasoline from as far away as India. On the same night, Russian authorities reported downing 327 drones over several regions, including occupied parts of Ukraine, and said one person was killed in a drone attack on the Nizhny Novgorod region. Poland and Finland briefly scrambled fighter jets or imposed temporary aviation restrictions as a precaution, though no airspace violations were recorded.

A study published on Wednesday by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that total military casualties in the war have surpassed two million, with Russian losses accounting for roughly 1.4 million of that figure. US-led mediation efforts have so far failed to produce a ceasefire, and Zelensky has said that Moscow is refusing to end the war. Kyiv declared a day of mourning for Friday, while Ukrainian diplomats continued to press Western capitals for accelerated deliveries of air-defence missiles and systems. The EU is expected to discuss the proposed new sanctions package in the coming days.