Published: 08:56 AM, 21 August 2026
Russian strikes on Kyiv leave 17 dead
A rescuer helps a woman through the rubble after an apartment was damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv on Thursday. -Getty
At least 17 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a "massive" Russian attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight and on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said. Attacks also bled into Moldova and Romania on Thursday. Romania said an explosive-laden naval drone believed to have been launched by Russia targeted one of its offshore natural gas projects.
In the Ukrainian capital, strikes damaged a hospital, a school, a preschool, residential buildings and several warehouses across the city, local authorities said, as the destruction of civilian infrastructure also drew sharp international condemnation.
CNN producers in Kyiv heard several explosions and saw smoke over the city, as an air raid alert stretched on for hours. Massive fires lit up the night sky over the capital, video by Reuters news agency showed.
The attacks on Kyiv continued during the day as three separate air raid alarms sounded in the capital on Thursday. Ukraine has been relatively successful at intercepting the massive numbers of drones that Russia uses in its large-scale attacks. But in recent weeks, Moscow has repeatedly exploited Kyiv's near-zero stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles, which are needed to defend against faster-moving ballistic missiles.
Ukraine only has 10% of the interceptor missiles it urgently needs from the United States and other allies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN in an interview earlier this month. "This year we have two and a half times less interceptors than we had in 2025," Zelensky said in that interview. "Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before."
Russia's defense ministry said Thursday on Telegram that it had launched a "massive strike using high-precision weapons" against military facilities, a transport and logistics center, and warehouses in the city of Kyiv and the broader region.
Zelensky said on Thursday that "the Russians prepared for a long time and combined various types of projectiles, cruise missiles, and drones to inflict as much damage as possible on civilian infrastructure."
Rescue workers had pulled two people from the rubble and were continuing to deal with the aftermath of the assault, hampered by the ongoing attacks. More than a dozen locations across the city were impacted, emergency services said. Firefighters were working to extinguish massive blazes.
"The missiles narrowly missed us by about 10 minutes," local Kyiv resident Anastasiia Kovtun, 31, told Reuters. She and her neighbors fled to a bomb shelter in a nearby parking garage. "By the time we were on our way back, the entire road had already been bombed, and all the buildings along the route were damaged."
Windows were shattered at a children's hospital in the Solomianskyi district, said Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Zelensky said on Thursday that "the Russians prepared for a long time and combined various types of projectiles, cruise missiles, and drones to inflict as much damage as possible on civilian infrastructure."
Rescue workers had pulled two people from the rubble and were continuing to deal with the aftermath of the assault, hampered by the ongoing attacks. More than a dozen locations across the city were impacted, emergency services said. Firefighters were working to extinguish massive blazes.
"The missiles narrowly missed us by about 10 minutes," local Kyiv resident Anastasiia Kovtun, 31, told Reuters. She and her neighbors fled to a bomb shelter in a nearby parking garage. "By the time we were on our way back, the entire road had already been bombed, and all the buildings along the route were damaged."
Windows were shattered at a children's hospital in the Solomianskyi district, said Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko.
