Editor’s note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Russia launched a large-scale aerial strike on Ukrainian cities late on Aug. 27, attacking Kyiv with missiles and targeting regions far from the front lines.
At least 12 people were killed in the attack on the capital, including three minors aged 2, 14, and 17, authorities reported.
Forty-eight people have been injured, and at least 30 of those victims have been hospitalized, Kyiv authorities said. Several children are among the injured.
Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine, and residents of nearly every region were urged to seek shelter as Russia launched hypersonic missiles and multiple waves of drones throughout the night. At least four MiG-31 aircraft — jets armed with Kinzhal missiles — took off during the attack.
Russia launched 598 drones overnight, including Shahed attack drones and decoys, as well as 31 missiles, among them two Kh-47 Kinzhal ballistic missiles, nine Iskander-M or North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles, and 20 Kh-101 cruise missiles, Ukraine’s Air Force reported.
Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 563 drones and 26 missiles, according to the statement.
Kyiv was rocked by explosions as Russia slammed the capital with drones and ballistic missiles, damaging homes, offices, and schools throughout the city. One five-story apartment building took a direct hit and was completely destroyed.
The city was attacked from multiple directions by Shahed-type drones, decoy drones, cruise missiles, and Kinzhal missiles, Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said.
Information about casualties and damage is still being determined. A massive rescue effort is currently underway to clear rubble and retrieve victims who may be trapped under the debris. The response involves around 500 rescuers and 1,000 emergency workers, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
Emergency workers at an attack site in Kyiv the morning after Russia’s deadly mass attack on Aug. 28, 2025. (Nick Allard / The Kyiv Independent)
Explosions were first heard in Kyiv beginning around 9:30 p.m., as Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced that air defense units were at work over the city. Tkachenko said that air defenses were again activated around midnight as another group of drones approached the city.
Ukraine’s Air Force also reported that dozens of drones were flying in swarms above the country’s central and southern regions, including Zhytomyr, Odesa, and Mykolaiv oblasts. Aerial alerts were also issued for Ukraine’s far-western regions, including Ternopil, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts.
The Air Force later reported that Russia had launched ballistic missile carriers towards central Ukraine.
Russia struck the Intercity+ high-speed train depot in the town of Koziatyn, Vinnytsia Oblast, severely damaging one of the trains, Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) reported. The attack led to changes in train operations.
All staff had taken shelter in advance, and no injuries were reported.
More rounds of loud explosions were heard in Kyiv at around 3 a.m. local time, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground. Tkachenko announced that Russia had attacked the city with ballistic missiles.
“Tonight, Kyiv is under massive attack by the Russian terrorist state,” Tkachenko said.
As Kyiv was still reeling from the attack on civilian neighborhoods, Russia launched another wave of cruise missiles towards the capital and other Ukrainian regions at around 5:30 a.m. New explosions rocked Kyiv while rescue workers were still searching for victims under the rubble of buildings hit by ballistic missiles only hours earlier.
Emergency services were dispatched to multiple districts of the city. Tkachenko said that attacks damaged more than 20 locations, including a shopping center in the city center.
In the Darnytskyi district, the attack damaged two residential buildings, one with five stories and the other with 16. The five-story building was hit directly, causing the structure to collapse from the first to the fifth floor. The Kyiv City Military Administration reported “significant destruction” and said rescue operations are underway.
Another home and a kindergarten in the area were damaged.
Right now in Kyiv, first responders are clearing the rubble of an ordinary residential building after a Russian strike. Another massive attack against our cities and communities. Killings again. Tragically, at least 8 people have already been confirmed dead. One of them is a… pic.twitter.com/aukkujC9ji
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 28, 2025
Fires also broke out at a three-story office and a 25-story building in the Dniprovskyi district. Drones crashed on the grounds of a nine-story building, and cars in the area caught fire.
In the Shevchenkivskyi district, the attack caused a fire in a residential building and damaged an office, an educational institution, and two non-residential buildings, Klitschko said. In the Solomyanskyi district, a house caught fire.
Damage was also recorded in the Holosiivskyi, Obolonskyi, and Desnianskyi districts.
“In total, the number of damaged sites in Kyiv will again reach hundreds, with thousands of broken windows,” Tkachenko said.
The attack also damaged a building of the EU mission to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.
“This requires not only the EU’s, but worldwide condemnation,” he added.
Katarina Mathernova, the EU’s envoy in Kyiv, called the attack “Moscow’s true answer to peace efforts.”
A Russian mass attack on Kyiv damaged a building of the EU mission to Ukraine overnight on Aug. 28, 2025. (Andrii Sybiha/X)
In a response to the attack, Polish and NATO aircraft were scrambled “to ensure the safety of Polish airspace,” Poland’s military reported.
Russia has increased the frequency and intensity of aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities since the start of 2025. On July 29, Russia launched its deadliest attack against Kyiv this year, killing 31 civilians in a massive combined strike.
As the White House pushes for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, Russia continues to exert additional pressure on Kyiv through constant attacks on cities and escalating ground offensives.
Smoke fills the sky over Kyiv during Russia’s mass missile and drone attack overnight on Aug. 28, 2025. (Olena Zashko / The Kyiv Independent)
While the death toll climbs, the Kremlin rejects calls for a ceasefire and condemns European efforts to provide security guarantees for Ukraine — insisting Russia must have a role in ensuring Ukraine’s future safety.
“These Russian missiles and attack drones today are a clear response to everyone in the world who, for weeks and months, has been calling for a ceasefire and for real diplomacy,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table.”
Zelensky added that he expects a reaction from China, which “has repeatedly called for not expanding the war and for a ceasefire,” as well as from Hungary.
“We expect a response from everyone in the world who has called for peace but now more often stays silent rather than taking principled positions,” the president said.
Russian forces edge westward, probe Ukrainian defenses in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
Russian troops entered two new villages in the central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, probing the region with small assault groups, Ukraine’s military said on Aug. 27. Ukrainian forces quickly repelled the Russian assault groups that entered Zaporizke and Novoheorhiivka villages on Aug. 26, but fighting rages on in the “immediate vicinity,” according to spokesperson Viktor Trehubov. The industrial Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, just west of Donetsk Oblast, which has been war-torn since 2014, enjoyed a
