Russia used the powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile during a mass drone and missile attack on Kyiv that killed at least four people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, marking the third time the weapon has been used in the four-year war.
The intense aerial assault overnight into Sunday damaged buildings across the Ukrainian capital, including near government offices, residential buildings, schools and a market, Ukrainian authorities said. About 100 people were wounded in the attack.
Air raid sirens blared through the night as smoke billowed across the city from strikes.
The attack included 600 strike drones and 90 air, sea and ground-launched missiles, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. Ukrainian air defences destroyed and jammed 549 drones and 55 missiles. Around 19 missiles failed to reach targets, the Air Force said.
The Oreshnik, which is capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads, struck the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region, Mr Zelensky said on Telegram.
Russia’s defence ministry later confirmed it used the Oreshnik, as well as other missile types, to strike Ukrainian “military command and control facilities”, air bases and military industrial enterprises.
The ministry added the attack was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on “civilian facilities on Russian territory”, without immediately giving detail.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday denounced a drone strike on a college dormitory in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, which Moscow blamed on Kyiv. He said there were no military or law enforcement facilities near the college, and he had ordered the Russian military to retaliate.
The death toll from that strike had risen to 21, Russian authorities said late on Saturday, and 42 other people had been wounded.
It marks the third time the Oreshnik missile, which Mr Putin has said streaks at 10 times the speed of sound and is capable of destroying underground bunkers “three, four or more floors down”, has been used in Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky said not all the ballistic missiles were intercepted and most of the strikes hit Kyiv, the primary target of the attack.
The apparent interception failures underscored Ukraine’s chronic shortage of air defence missiles capable of downing ballistic missiles. Kyiv relies heavily on US Patriot air defence systems to intercept such weapons, but interceptors remain in short supply and are among Ukraine’s most urgent requests to its Western partners.
Kyiv’s European allies, including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, condemned the Russian strikes and use of the Oreshnik in statements published on Sunday.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said top diplomats from EU states will meet within days to “discuss how to dial up the international pressure on Russia”.
Kyiv resident Svitlana Onofryichuk, 55, said: “It was a terrible night, and there had never been anything like it in the entire war.
“I am very sorry that I have to say goodbye to Kyiv now, I am not staying there anymore, there is no possibility.
“My job is gone, everything is gone, everything has burned down.”
Yevhen Zosin, 74, a city resident who witnessed the attack, said the moment he heard an explosion he rushed to save his dog.
“Then there was another explosion and she and I were thrown back like a pin by the shock wave. We both survived, she and I. My apartment was blown to pieces,” he said.
Russia first used the multiple-warhead Oreshnik on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024. It was used a second time in January in the western Lviv region.
Mr Putin has said the weapon travels “like a meteorite” and is immune to any missile defence system, adding that several such missiles, even fitted with conventional warheads, could be as devastating as a nuclear strike.
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