Editor's note: This is a developing story.

Russia launched a massive overnight missile and drone attack targeting Kyiv and the surrounding region, killing 14 people and injuring more than 40, Ukrainian authorities said on 20 August.

The attack involved ballistic and cruise missiles alongside hundreds of drones. Ukraine’s Air Force said the main direction of the attack was Kyiv Oblast, with strikes and debris recorded at multiple locations. Several explosions were heard in the capital around midnight on 20 August, according to Euromaidan Press reporters in the city.

Residential building hit in Kyiv

In Kyiv, strikes, damage, and fires were reported in the Sviatoshynskyi, Darnytskyi, and Solomianskyi districts.

In Solomianskyi district, the upper two floors of a nine-story residential building were destroyed, with a fire breaking out across the seventh through ninth floors. 

People were trapped in two residential buildings and a school bomb shelter, prompting emergency crews to carry out rescue operations.

Thirteen people have now been confirmed killed in Kyiv, including a woman whose body was discovered by rescuers in Solomianskyi district, Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a children's hospital and a school were also damaged in the capital.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city would observe 21 August as a day of mourning, with entertainment events banned and flags lowered.

Fires and damage across Kyiv

Around 20 residential buildings in Kyiv were significantly damaged, along with a school, children's hospital, and kindergarten, Vyhivskyi said.

In Sviatoshynskyi district, Russian strikes hit an industrial site and sparked fires at warehouses covering 500 and 1,000 square meters. Another warehouse also caught fire.

In Darnytskyi district, a non-residential site was hit, causing fires across warehouses and vehicles covering about 1,000 square meters. Rescuers saved one person and handed them over to medics.

Other locations saw damage to residential buildings, a medical facility, cars, garages, and stores.

More than 600 rescuers and police officers have been involved in clearing the aftermath since overnight. Emergency crews are currently working at two sites in Kyiv and three more in Boryspil and Brovary districts.

Rescuers are using specialized equipment and robotic systems to clear the rubble and check whether anyone remains trapped.

Police have set up assistance centers at the attack sites to register reports of damaged or destroyed property. More than 200 reports have already been processed in Kyiv, while psychologists are assisting people who lost relatives or their homes.

Kyiv Oblast casualties

The attack also hit Kyiv Oblast. One man was killed in Brovary district and another was injured.

In Boryspil district, six people were injured, four of whom were hospitalized. The attack damaged 14 private homes, four warehouses, a gas station, an apartment building, and eight vehicles.

Vyhivskyi said fires also engulfed warehouses storing household goods in Kyiv Oblast. Firefighters are working to contain the blaze, with aviation also deployed.

Zelenskyy calls for stronger ballistic missile defenses

Zelenskyy said Russia’s growing investment in ballistic missiles requires a stronger international response and more air defense for Ukraine.

He said Ukraine is working daily on its FREYJA interceptor program, but stressed that Patriot interceptors remain irreplaceable and are needed every day to protect Ukrainian cities from Russian ballistic missile attacks.

“Every additional missile saves the lives of our people,” Zelenskyy said, thanking those working to provide Ukraine with additional air defense capabilities.

Hundreds of aerial targets launched

Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 168 Shahed-type attack drones, Gerbera decoy drones, and other drones, along with 36 Kh-101, Iskander-K, and Kh-59 cruise missiles, eight Kalibr missiles, two Banderyl-type loitering munitions, and ballistic missiles including Oniks, Zircon, Iskander-M, and S-400 missiles.

As of 9:30 a.m., Ukrainian air defenses had shot down or suppressed 31 cruise missiles, all eight Kalibr missiles, both loitering munitions, and 145 drones, according to the Air Force.

The Air Force reported impacts at 28 locations and debris from intercepted targets at two others. 

The attack continued into the late morning, with air raid sirens still active and several Russian drones still in Ukrainian airspace.

Explore further

Russia hit Kyiv with ballistic and hypersonic missiles overnight, damaging a children’s hospital, with people trapped in a shelter

Rail traffic disrupted

Russia's strikes also disrupted rail traffic around Kyiv after railway infrastructure was damaged. Several suburban and regional trains between Kyiv and Nizhyn were rerouted or canceled.

Strikes reported in other regions

Zelenskyy said the attack also caused damage in Odesa and Chernihiv oblasts.

In Odesa Oblast, Russian drones targeted a border crossing with Moldova, while strikes in Chernihiv Oblast damaged gas infrastructure.

Russia could assemble a strike force for an offensive into northern Ukraine by February 2027 if Moscow launches another mobilization, Ukrainian military intelligence's (HUR) deputy chief Major General Vadym Skibitskyi told RBC-Ukraine on 18 August.

Skibitskyi said another mobilization could follow Russia’s September parliamentary elections. Depending on its scale, that call-up could produce a strike force by February 2027. Skibitskyi based the February estimate on Russia’s 2022 mobilization. He said some personnel reached the front in December 2022, while combat-ready units arrived in January 2023.

Earlier warnings identified a northern route

The February estimate follows Ukrainian warnings about possible attacks across the northern border. In May, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was tracking five scenarios for expanding the war through the north, including an advance through Chernihiv Oblast toward Kyiv.

Syrskyi called an attack from Russia’s Bryansk Oblast into Chernihiv Oblast Moscow’s most realistic northern option, ranking it above an operation through Belarus. Its purpose, he said, would be to draw Ukrainian forces away from the east and south.

Russia has also struggled to prepare other major campaigns as Ukraine targeted the forces and systems needed to carry them out. ISW assessed that Ukrainian drones likely disrupted preparations for a spring–summer offensive in Donetsk Oblast, while a planned Russian naval-drone campaign reportedly stalled after Starlink access was blocked.

Ukrainian intelligence says Russia lacks the manpower

Skibitskyi said Moscow cannot form the units required for a new offensive without mobilization. HUR estimates Russia lost more personnel than it recruited in both June and July. The shortfall reached 3,000 in June and at least 1,000 in July, meaning monthly contracts no longer replaced battlefield losses.

The agency says Russia’s operational reserve is about one-tenth the size of its combat component against Ukraine. Moscow also lacks enough personnel to expand brigades into divisions, while recruitment for its unmanned-systems forces has reached only 30% of its quota.

CSIS estimated in January that Russia had suffered losses unmatched by any major state since World War II while advancing extremely slowly.

Belarus is expanding its military footprint on the Ukrainian border again, standing up a new brigade near the frontier, the commander of its Special Operations Forces said on state television. President Lukashenka insists the buildup is defensive and that Belarus will not be dragged into the war.

Russia has long treated Belarusian soil as a forward base and pressure point—a way to rattle Ukraine's north and NATO's eastern edge without spending its own overstretched army, sustained through drills, troop moves, and nuclear signaling.

A new brigade taking shape

The unit is the 37th separate air-assault brigade under Belarus's Special Operations Forces—its fourth such airborne brigade. It will be based near the city of Homiel, just across from Ukraine's Chernihiv Oblast and about 40 km from the frontier. The permanent move to that base is set for 2027. Colonel Aliaksandr Ilyukevich, who commands the Special Operations Forces, laid out the plan on Belarus's Defense Ministry VoenTV channel on 2 August, Militarnyi reported.

By his account, one battalion is already formed, with a second due this year alongside reconnaissance, air-defense, and artillery units. Ilyukevich had first described that battalion back in February on another Belarusian state channel. His August appearance restated it and attached the unit's new 37th designation.

Why the northern buildup still costs Ukraine

Belarus has never put its own soldiers into Ukraine. It did hand Russia the launchpad for the 2022 drive on Kyiv, though, and it has kept the border militarized ever since—even hosting Russian hardware such as the drone relay stations Kyiv later pressed Minsk to pull.

Explore further

Belarus’s exiled opposition hands Ukraine a 30-page file on how Minsk is being readied for war

A standing brigade on the frontier still does not add up to an imminent invasion. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) still judges a Belarusian ground assault very unlikely. However, every new unit in the north ties down Ukrainian troops and air defenses that Kyiv needs elsewhere, and it gifts Russia a threat it can activate without firing a shot—the same hybrid playbook Minsk runs against EU neighbors, funneling migrants toward Latvia.

At least four civilians were killed and 37 others injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past 24 hours, regional authorities reported on July 5.

Russia launched 322 drones overnight, including Iranian-designed Shahed-type attack drones, according to Ukraine's Air Force. Air defenses intercepted 292 drones, while another 135 dropped off radars, likely used as decoys to overwhelm Ukrainian systems.

The attack was repelled using aviation, electronic warfare, mobile fire teams, and air defense systems.

In Donetsk Oblast, Russian strikes killed two civilians and injured four more, Governor Vadym Filashkin said. In Kharkiv Oblast, one person was killed and 15 injured, including two children, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov.

In Kherson Oblast, 11 civilians were injured as Russian forces targeted residential areas and other civilian infrastructure, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported.

A 49-year-old postal worker was injured in Chernihiv Oblast by a first-person-view (FPV) drone, Governor Viacheslav Chaus said. The man sustained shrapnel wounds while delivering mail.

In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, four civilians, two men and two women, were injured in Russian strikes, Governor Serhii Lysak reported.

In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, an 84-year-old man was killed, and two others — a 54-year-old man and a 10-year-old boy — were injured, Governor Ivan Fedorov said.

The latest strikes come as Russia continues to escalate its aerial campaign and reject calls for a ceasefire. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly urged Western partners to bolster Ukraine's air defense capabilities amid persistent drone and missile strikes.

Trump says Putin ‘wants to keep killing people,’ signals US may send Patriots to Ukraine

“It just seems like he wants to go all the way and just keep killing people. It’s not good,” U.S. President Donald Trump said.

The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy

Editor's note: The article was updated after three bodies were found in Kramatorsk following a Russian attack.

Russian strikes across Ukrainian regions killed at least seven civilians and injured at least 23 over the past day, regional authorities reported on June 22.

Russia launched two Iskander-M or North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles, an S-300 anti-aircraft missile, and 47 Shahed-type attack drones and decoy drones against Ukraine overnight, primarily targeting Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine's Air Force said.

Ukrainian air defenses reportedly shot down 18 drones, while 10 disappeared from radars or were intercepted by electronic warfare. Seven hits by Russian aerial weapons were recorded overnight in Chernihiv, Sumy, and Odesa oblasts.

In Chernihiv Oblast, a civilian was killed in a Russian drone attack against the Nizhyn district, Governor Viacheslav Chaus reported.

In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian drone and artillery attacks against the Nikopol district injured seven people and damaged multiple houses and civilian infrastructure, Governor Serhii Lysak reported. A 63-year-old man has been hospitalized and is in moderate condition.

Russian attacks across Donetsk Oblast killed three people and injured 13, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin and the media. This included a civilian killed and three injured in Sloviansk, and another killed and two injured in Kostiantynivka.

Later on June 22, emergency workers found four bodies of people killed when a Russian missile hit a four-story residential building in Kramatorsk. Four people were injured, and one other resident may be trapped under the rubble, the State Emergency Service said.

In Kharkiv Oblast, a Russian attack killed a 77-year-old man in the village of Staryi Saltiv, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

Russian attacks against Kherson Oblast wounded three civilians, said the regional governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. Five multi-story apartment buildings and 11 houses were damaged.

Russia ‘afraid to admit’ scale of losses, trying to hide by dumping soldiers’ bodies on Ukraine, Zelensky says

Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that at least 20 of the bodies Russia returned as Ukrainian were actually Russian soldiers, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy

Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least six civilians and injured at least 49, including a teenage boy, over the past day, regional authorities reported on June 18.

Russian forces launched 58 Shahed-type attack drones and decoys against Ukraine overnight, targeting mainly the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, the Air Force said.

Ukrainian defenses shot down 12 drones, while 18 disappeared from radars or were intercepted by electronic warfare systems, according to the statement.

In Chernihiv Oblast, a Russian drone attack against a village in the Snovsk community on June 17 injured a 68-year-old woman, Governor Viacheslav Chaus reported.

A Russian attack against Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on June 17 killed a 63-year-old man, Governor Serhii Lysak reported. Two more people were injured, and an educational institution and houses were damaged.

Russian attacks across Donetsk Oblast killed a civilian in Myrnohrad and injured eight others in the region, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin.

In Kharkiv Oblast, three people were injured in Russian attacks, including a 69-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy in Izium and a 52-year-old man in Ripky, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.

Russian attacks against Kherson Oblast killed two people and injured 34, according to the regional governor, Oleksandr Prokudin.

In Sumy Oblast, one person was killed and another injured in a Russian drone attack against the Bilopillia community, and another man was killed during an air strike against the Yunakivka community, the regional administration reported.

Russia launched missile and drone attacks against Zaporizhzhia, damaging multiple residential and non-residential buildings but inflicting no casualties, Governor Ivan Fedorov said.

‘He said he wasn’t going anywhere’ — Survivors search for missing following Russia’s deadliest attack on Kyiv this year

Sitting a few meters from the rubble of what used to be a nondescript nine-story residential building in Kyiv, Lilia rises to her feet every time another pile of debris is cleared from the site targeted by Russia during a mass overnight attack on June 17. “We are waiting (as

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova