Russian missile and drone barrage kills 15 in Kyiv region, wounds 42
At least 15 people were killed and 42 wounded in Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight into Wednesday, Ukraine's state emergency service said.
The attack was the latest in a series of large-scale Russian ballistic missile strikes that have become frequent this summer. Ukraine's air defence capabilities are stretched, with a limited stockpile of interceptor missiles for the U.S.-made Patriot systems, the only air defence system in its arsenal capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
In the wider Kyiv region, 14 people were killed and 27 wounded, with fires at multiple locations in the Brovary, Bucha and Fastiv districts. Large warehouse fires burned in the city of Brovary and the villages of Velyka Dymerka, Kvitneve and Peremoha. A fire involving vehicles at an enterprise in Fastiv district was also extinguished.
In Bucha district, emergency crews battled a warehouse fire in the village of Chaiky after putting out a separate fire at a logistics facility in Sofiivska Borshchahivka. The Kyiv City Military Administration said that in the capital, one person was killed and 15 wounded, with all fires in the Obolonskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, Holosiivskyi and Desnianskyi districts extinguished.
The strikes come as the conflict has entered a phase of intensifying long-range attacks on infrastructure. Ukraine has stepped up its own deep strikes on Russian oil refineries and energy facilities, while Russia has continued its bombardment of Ukrainian cities.
Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine's president on defence technology development, described the attacks as part of a new phase in the war of attrition. "The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately — retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses," he said on Facebook.
Among the businesses hit was Epicentr, one of Ukraine's largest retail and construction chains. In a statement on Facebook, the company said that "in minutes, Russian missiles destroyed what the company had built over decades." One employee was killed and three others wounded. Russia struck two of the company's key logistics hubs.
A direct hit also destroyed the production floor of its ceramic tile factory, forcing Epicentr to halt manufacturing there and shift production abroad. The company said full recovery could take up to two years.
Epicentr also expressed support for other Ukrainian businesses affected by the attack, saying it understood "how many years of work, effort, faith and daily responsibility stand behind every enterprise." Ukraine has carried out its own campaign against Russian retail logistics, striking multiple warehouses belonging to Wildberries — often described as Russia's answer to Amazon — as part of a broader effort to damage Moscow's economy.
The overnight strikes underline the continuing volatility of the conflict, with both sides engaging in long-range attacks on infrastructure and civilian areas, and the human toll continuing to mount.
