At least 18 people have been killed and dozens injured in a massive Russian missile and drone attack across five Ukrainian cities, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to urgently request Patriot missile systems from US President Donald Trump.
Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones overnight, including eight hypersonic Tsirkon missiles, according to Ukraine's air force. The main targets were Kyiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, and Kharkiv.
In Kyiv, loud explosions rocked the capital as residents sought shelter in basements, corridors, and metro stations. Black smoke billowed over the city. Six people died and 66 were injured, including three children.
"A large-scale attack and a completely transparent statement from Russia," Zelenskyy wrote on social media. "If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic and other missile strikes, these strikes will continue."
He stressed that Europe needs its own anti-ballistic missiles and that Ukraine requires US assistance in supplying Patriots. "We count on the support of our partners and effective responses to today's strike," he added.
Ukraine's president has repeatedly warned that Kyiv is running out of Patriot interceptors, the only air defence system capable of blocking fast-moving enemy ballistic missiles. Ukraine's air defences intercepted about half of the missiles fired on Tuesday, but more than 30 hit civilian targets.
Zelenskyy took the unprecedented step last week of writing to the White House and Congress requesting assistance, describing Patriots as a "vital tool" in saving lives. Ballistic missiles were Moscow's "last major advantage on the battlefield," he emphasized.
However, the Trump administration has so far ignored Zelenskyy's pleas, with hundreds of scarce and expensive Patriots used up in February during the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Tuesday that Russia's latest strikes showed President Vladimir Putin was running out of options. In recent weeks, Ukraine has waged an increasingly successful aerial campaign with long-range drones, hitting oil refineries and ports in Russia as well as a crucial land corridor connecting occupied southern Ukraine with Crimea.
"Putin is a war criminal and loser who has no cards except terror," Sybiha said. "Moscow is losing on the battlefield. No number of missiles can change this."
In Dnipro, at least 12 people were killed and 37 injured. One of the dead was a three-year-old boy who was buried when a four-storey residential building collapsed. Six people were missing under the rubble. A rescuer was also killed in a second "double tap" strike.
Dnipro's Mayor Borys Filatov accused Moscow of deliberately using cluster munitions in built-up areas to cause more civilian casualties. He posted a photo showing holes gouged in a road on Telegram.
"Almost all of you have seen the photos of the horror those bastards have caused again in Dnipro. Just look down at your feet. The entire tarmac is shattered," he wrote.
The regional governor, Oleksandr Hanzha, posted pictures on social media of heavily damaged residential buildings, burnt-out vehicles, and a destroyed children's playground. Almost half of those wounded were being treated in hospital for fractures, shrapnel wounds, and lacerations.
In Kharkiv, at least 14 people were injured and residential homes, garages, and cars were damaged.
Another air alert rang out across Kyiv later on Tuesday morning, forcing residents to return to shelters. Ukrainian writer and blogger Illia Ponomarenko compared the relentless bombardment to German V2 rocket attacks on London during World War II. The "senseless and futile killings" would not bring Putin victory, he said.
Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a missile strike on a 24-storey block of flats triggered a collapse. Other buildings, including a nine-storey apartment block, caught fire. "In the Obolon district, cars are burning after being struck by falling missile debris. There are also fires at two locations in open areas, including one near a kindergarten," Klitschko said.
In the Podilskyi district, there was partial damage to the upper floors of a nine-storey building, trapping people under the rubble. Rescue operations continued into the early hours even as the air raid alert remained in effect.
Olena Dniprovska, 65, and her husband Yevhen, 64, were injured in their flat in Kyiv's Podilskyi district. "I went out into the corridor with the phone and before I understood what happened, everything fell on my head, the glass, and the door blew off," Dniprovska told Associated Press, dried blood streaked across her face and a bandage wrapped around her chin.
"I ran out into the front door and started calling my husband from the room, but he was also blown out by the blast wave," she said. "Now I have nowhere to live, the apartment is completely destroyed, no doors, no windows, no balcony. You can step straight from the room out on to the street."
Electricity was cut for 140,000 residents of the capital, the power company DTEK told Reuters. It later said utility workers had restored power to 110,000 residents, and two of its engineers had been injured.
On Monday, Zelenskyy reiterated warnings of a potentially major assault and urged residents to pay special attention to air raid alerts. "Intelligence warnings regarding Russian strikes remain in effect. A massive strike is possible, they have prepared one," Ukraine's president said in his nightly video address. "Our defenders are ready 24/7 to the fullest extent possible with the supplies currently available."
Last week Russia said it intended to launch "systematic strikes" on targets in Kyiv linked to the Ukrainian military as well as decision-making centres, and urged foreigners to leave. It came after a drone strike on a dormitory in the Russian-held Luhansk region, which killed 21 people. Ukraine said it had targeted a drone command centre.
