KYIV, Ukraine — Russia unleashed a barrage of hundreds of drones and missiles against Ukraine overnight, killing at least 18 people in its most intense attack of the year.
The hourslong bombardment follows a short Easter ceasefire, with peace talks to end the war at a standstill as the U.S. focuses on the Iran war. Kyiv fears that conflict is leaving it short of the air defense munitions it needs to stop Russian missiles, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy having spent the week touring allies and pleading for help protecting the country's skies.
Black smoke billowed into the night sky of the Ukrainian capital, the morning revealing charred cars and piles of debris scattered next to damaged buildings.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least four people were killed in strikes on the capital, including a 12-year-old boy, while 45 other people were hurt. A drone crashed directly into an 18-story residential building in the west of the capital, Klitschko said, as he also reported rocket debris falling in other districts.
Olena Kapustian, 41, a Kyiv resident who survived the drone hit with her son, told Reuters the blast left her shaken. “I fear for our country and for everything we have. ... I feel so sorry for the children,” she said outside the damaged building.
Kapustian said the strike was the second time the apartment block had been hit, after a Shahed drone attack a year ago.
Nine people were killed and 23 others were injured in the southern Black Sea port city of Odesa, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the local military administration. Search-and-rescue operations were continuing, he added, with residential buildings, port and critical infrastructure facilities sustaining significant damage.
Port infrastructure was damaged, and a civilian cargo vessel, sailing under the flag of the Micronesia nation of Nauru, was also set on fire by a drone strike, Kiper said.
Local authorities reported three people dead and 34 injured in the central Dnipropetrovsk region; three people were also reported killed in the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
Ukraine’s air forces said 44 cruise and ballistic missiles and nearly 660 drones were fired at Ukraine in the previous 24 hours. Twelve missiles and 20 drones escaped air defenses, hitting 26 locations, it said.
“Another night has proven that Russia does not deserve any easing of global policy or lifting of sanctions,” Zelenskyy said on X.
Most of the ballistic missiles targeted Kyiv, he said, and there were hits and damage to ordinary residential buildings. “There can be no normalization of Russia as it is today,” he added.
The U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran and energy market disruptions caused by Tehran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have led Washington to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian oil.
Moscow also stands to benefit from soaring oil prices and the diversion of weapons and global attention from its war in Ukraine.
Russia said it had launched a “massive strike” on military targets in Ukraine in response to what it said were “Ukraine’s terrorist attacks on civilian targets inside Russia.”
Ukraine has been targeting energy infrastructure to prevent Russia from fueling its war effort as it aims to maintain pressure on Moscow and its ailing economy.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said more than 200 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight over six Russian regions and annexed Crimea.
Two people, including a 14-year-old child, were killed in a drone attack on the Russian town of Tuapse, said the governor of the southern Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev. Falling drone debris also damaged several residential buildings, he said.
Daryna Mayer reported from Kyiv and Yuliya Talmazan from London.
