Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv region kills two women and damages energy sites

Russia struck Kyiv and the surrounding region with ballistic missiles and drones overnight from Sunday, October 18, into Monday, October 19. City officials said a 21-year-old woman was killed in the capital and eight people were injured, according to the Kyiv Independent and the Associated Press. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles, mainly at Kyiv and its region, and that the barrage damaged more than 10 energy facilities across the country.

How the attack unfolded

Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat said ballistic missiles hit at about 11 p.m. on Sunday and again at about 3 a.m., according to The Irish Times, which carried a Guardian report from Kyiv. Kyiv Independent journalists reported a further round of explosions at about 7 a.m.

Zelenskyy put the overnight total at 16 ballistic missiles and more than 200 drones, according to the Ukrainian rights outlet ZMINA. The AP report quotes Zelenskyy on the missiles and describes jet-powered drones, but gives no drone count.

Damage in the capital

According to the Kyiv Independent, which cites the State Emergency Service and Mayor Vitali Klitschko:

• Desnianskyi district: the woman was killed, a non-residential building caught fire and a metro station was damaged. The above-ground Chernihivska and Lisova stations were temporarily closed, and more than 70 workers were repairing power and train-control systems.
• Solomianskyi district: five people were hurt when a 25-storey residential building was damaged. A shopping centre and a medical centre were also damaged; no staff were reported hurt.
• Data centre: a Datagroup facility was destroyed. The company says it serves more than 90 settlements across Ukraine.

Russia's Defence Ministry said it carried out a large-scale strike on a data centre, a logistics hub for drone and cruise-missile components, a plant making drone parts and a locomotive depot where it said missiles were stored, the AP reported. The reports read do not independently confirm those descriptions.

Irpin and other regions

In Irpin, about 20 km northwest of Kyiv, one woman was killed and 19 people were injured, nine of them children, the Kyiv Independent reported. Kyiv regional military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said three people were missing as of about 9 a.m. The Kyiv Independent counted 70 houses and five apartment buildings damaged in Irpin; ZMINA gave a figure of 86 structures.

ZMINA also reported three homes destroyed and an 84-year-old woman hospitalised in Dnipropetrovsk region, and two women injured in Rivne region, citing regional officials.

Power, heat and water

Zelenskyy said in a social media post that more than half a million people were left without light, heating and running water, the AP reported. ZMINA quoted him as saying 28 substations and other facilities were damaged in the latest wave. Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said there had been more than 2,100 attacks on energy infrastructure since mid-July, according to ZMINA.

The early-warning dispute

Zelenskyy said Ukraine again received no advance warning from partner countries, which had shared such intelligence before. "There was no warning from our partners," he wrote, as quoted by The Irish Times. Ihnat said a warning came before the 3 a.m. wave but not before the 11 p.m. one.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, said "a few nights ago there was a software problem involving their early warning system," The Irish Times reported. He said U.S. European Command was looking into the strikes. The AP reported that Rubio said he had no information about the previous night's attack and repeated that Washington has not stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv.

The attack followed President Donald Trump's waiver of a package of Russia sanctions on Friday, October 16. The AP also reported that on Sunday Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia, setting fire to an oil export terminal and a depot in St. Petersburg.