In the early hours of Thursday morning, Kyiv was rocked by one of the deadliest aerial assaults in recent weeks. As residents were jolted awake by hours of blaring air raid sirens, Russia launched a massive wave of drone and missile strikes across the Ukrainian capital—just hours after former U.S. President Donald Trump reignited tensions by publicly accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of undermining peace efforts.
The coordinated attacks struck 13 locations across Kyiv, leaving a trail of devastation. At least nine people were killed and more than 70 others injured, Ukraine’s emergency services reported. CNN journalists on the ground described six straight hours of alarm sirens echoing throughout the city as explosions lit up the night sky.
Images released by emergency crews show buildings ablaze, reduced to charred frames. Rescue teams, engineers, and search dogs worked through the debris, especially in the heavily hit Sviatoshyn district, where a residential home was leveled. Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said crews were still searching for survivors—including two children who remained unaccounted for.
“The situation is tragic,” Klymenko stated during a press briefing.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko had earlier issued urgent calls for residents to shelter in place. By mid-morning, the city’s military administration declared the air threat over and issued an all-clear.
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Among the injured were at least six children, and 42 people were rushed to hospitals as emergency services scrambled to respond.
The strike comes at a tense political moment, as Trump’s latest public criticism of Zelensky added fuel to the ongoing conflict narrative. With violence flaring and diplomacy growing more fragile, Ukraine is once again bracing for what could be a long and brutal spring.
A ballistic missile explodes in the sky over Kyiv during a Russian drone strike. Gleb Garanich/Reuters
An injured woman sits with her dog near a house destroyed by a Russian airstrike. Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
Klymenko said eight regions of the country were targeted in what he called “a massive combined Russian attack” that hit Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Poltava, Khmelnytsky, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia.
The attacks hit after Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky became involved in a new public spat, specifically over the future of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
As part of its mission to seal a peace deal to end the three-year war, the US administration has proposed recognizing Russian control of Crimea, officials familiar with the details have told CNN.
Any move to recognize Russia’s control of Crimea would reverse a decade of US policy and could upset the widely held post-World War Two consensus that international borders should not be changed by force.
Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine would not accept that, saying it would go against the country’s constitution.
On Wednesday, Trump said Zelensky’s position was “very harmful to the peace negotiations with Russia.”
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that make it so difficult to settle this war. He has nothing to boast about!” he posted on Truth Social.
Trump made the comments hours after Vice President JD Vance threatened to abandon negotiations, telling reporters during a visit to India that a “very explicit proposal” had been put to both Russia and Ukraine and that it was “time for them to either say yes or for the US to walk away.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in South Africa on Wednesday, hours after US President Trump accused him of harming peace talks. Courtesy of the Ukrainian Presidency
Earlier, talks between Ukraine, the US, Britain, France, and Germany aimed at furthering work towards a ceasefire were downgraded to take place among officials after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio withdrew.
“Emotions have run high today,” Zelensky said on X Wednesday as the day’s developments threw fresh uncertainty over the diplomatic efforts to end the war.
The Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to visit Moscow on Friday for discussions with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
CNN’s Victoria Butenko, Svitlana Vlasova, Rob Picheta and Kylie Atwood contributed reporting
