Kyiv missile and drone attack kills 14, including children, in deadly overnight strikes

Dublin People Group is collaborating with the Ukrainian Center for International Communications Cideips to provide information regarding ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Kyiv has been left reeling after a devastating overnight assault that killed at least 14 people, including three children, and injured nearly 40 more in one of the deadliest bombardments of the Ukrainian capital in recent months.

The attack began under the cover of darkness earlier this morning when waves of missiles and drones were launched from multiple directions in a coordinated strike designed to overwhelm air defences.

By the time dawn broke, the scale of destruction was evident across seven districts of the city.

Emergency crews worked through the night pulling survivors from the rubble, extinguishing fires, and searching for the missing as the death toll climbed.

Among the victims were a two-year-old toddler, a 14-year-old teenager, and a 17-year-old youth whose lives were cut short in the attack.

Ukrainian officials said another 38 people suffered injuries ranging from burns and fractures to life-threatening wounds.

More than a dozen people remain unaccounted for, raising fears that the number of dead will rise further as rescue operations continue.

The missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, tore into residential neighbourhoods, leaving behind charred apartment blocks, twisted metal, and shattered glass.

The blasts were so powerful they ripped through more than 20 locations across the city.

Local authorities confirmed that over 100 facilities were damaged in total, including homes, schools, shops, vehicles, and a busy shopping centre in the heart of Kyiv.

Eyewitnesses described a night of terror. Sirens wailed across the capital as families scrambled for shelter in basements and subway stations.

Those caught in their homes when the explosions hit reported scenes of chaos, with ceilings collapsing, fires spreading rapidly, and cries for help echoing through the darkness.

Parents carried their children through smoke-filled corridors, neighbours formed human chains to rescue the elderly, and emergency responders worked frantically against the clock.

The aftermath has been described as apocalyptic in parts of the city, with rescue teams continuing to comb through smouldering ruins in search of survivors. “We are doing everything we can, but the destruction is enormous,” one emergency worker said at the scene of a collapsed residential block.

Firefighters, police, paramedics and volunteers remain on site, many working with little rest since the first missiles struck.

The attack marks yet another escalation in the ongoing assault on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.

While Kyiv has endured repeated waves of missile and drone strikes since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, last night’s bombardment is being described by residents as among the most terrifying.

The fact that children were among the dead has deepened anger and grief in the city, where memorial candles and flowers are already appearing near the worst-hit areas.

Ukrainian authorities have vowed to continue documenting the destruction for international investigators, insisting that the deliberate targeting of civilian areas amounts to a war crime. Meanwhile, officials in Kyiv stressed that the capital’s resilience remains unbroken despite the scale of the losses.

For now, however, Kyiv is a city in mourning.

Families grieve loved ones lost overnight, hospitals struggle to cope with the influx of the injured, and emergency workers continue their grim search for those still trapped under rubble.

The scars of this latest attack will take far longer to heal than the fires still burning in Ukraine’s capital today.