Russian forces have launched a major missile attack on Ukraine, killing at least nine people and injuring 33 others, Ukrainian officials said.
The overnight strikes hit several districts of Kyiv, causing fires and damaging residential buildings and a children’s hospital. A nine-storey apartment building in the Solomianskyi district collapsed after being hit, with rescuers working to free people trapped under the rubble.
One person was also killed and another wounded in a separate attack in the Brovary district of the wider Kyiv region.
The attacks prompted heightened security measures in neighbouring NATO countries. Poland activated air defences and deployed aircraft to protect its airspace, while Romania scrambled fighter jets after detecting aerial targets near its border with Ukraine. Romanian authorities also said a drone entered their airspace before crashing in an unpopulated area.
Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, claimed that its forces had shot down 726 Ukrainian drones overnight across several regions and over the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.
Political Pressure on Zelenskyy
The strikes came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy faced growing domestic political pressure over the country’s leadership and the suspension of elections during wartime.
Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday approved Yevhenii Khmara as the new defence minister by 312 votes to two. Khmara, a career intelligence official and former head of the SBU’s Alpha special operations unit, replaces Mykhailo Fedorov, who was dismissed in July.
Fedorov has since called for Ukraine to move towards holding elections, arguing that the country is facing a “systemic crisis of governance”. His remarks sparked demonstrations in Kyiv, with some protesters demanding the renewal of the country’s political leadership.
Ukraine’s presidential election, originally due in 2024, has been postponed because martial law remains in force following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Zelenskyy’s five-year term formally expired in May 2024, but Ukrainian authorities maintain that elections cannot legally be held under the current wartime conditions.
The growing political debate comes as Ukraine continues to face intense Russian attacks and mounting pressure over the direction of the war.
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