Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles and drones in two waves, killing one person, injuring civilians, and damaging university dormitories and apartment blocks, the city military administration said. Russian strikes also killed two people in Kharkiv on the evening of 26 October and wounded civilians in four other oblasts overnight. Daytime attacks on 26 October killed people in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv oblasts.
Russia's war against Ukraine grinds on along the front, where on 26 October alone Russian forces dropped 247 guided bombs and used 9,679 kamikaze drones, the General Staff reported. Behind the front, Russian missiles and drones keep hitting Ukrainian cities, while Washington presses Kyiv rather than Moscow. Ukraine was reportedly told to spare Russian refineries or lose US intelligence and arms. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused US President Donald Trump of trying to pressure Ukraine into capitulating, and a Ukrainian diplomat argues that Trump treats Ukraine as the weak link to be squeezed.
Two ballistic waves hit a Kyiv campus, the center, and the Southern Bridge
Shortly after 22:00 on 26 October, Russian missiles hit near a metro station in Kyiv's left-bank Desnianskyi district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported. An ambulance crew that had arrived at a call came under fire, and two medics were injured.
The missiles struck the grounds of one of Kyiv's universities, its campus, Kyoto Park, nearby homes, and the area beside a metro station, Zelenskyy wrote. “There is no military facility nearby,” he said.
In Dniprovskyi district, the blast wave blew out windows in a medical facility's intensive care unit, Klitschko said. A three-story non-residential building in the district partly collapsed.
The evening strike also damaged the metro between two left-bank stations and the exits of Lisova station, Klitschko said.
Kyiv gets no warning of the first of two Russian ballistic waves, hours after Zelenskyy said US alerts were back
A second wave followed before dawn on 27 October. Missiles hit an administrative building in Podilskyi district, Klitschko reported, and at 05:04 he said Russia had hit the Southern (Pivdennyi) Bridge and the metro infrastructure on it.
Police closed the bridge to traffic, and green-line trains stopped crossing it. Russian strikes had already damaged metro infrastructure on the same bridge on 22 October.
The overnight attack set two non-residential buildings on fire in Obolonskyi district, and two more people were injured.
By morning, a 46-year-old woman was dead and 15 people were injured, among them dormitory residents and two medics, the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office said. Prosecutors counted at least 12 damaged apartment blocks, as well as a burns center, a shopping mall, and a tram.
Kyiv was the main target of the night, the Air Force said, as Russia launched Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles and 280 drones. Air defenses downed two of the missiles and 255 drones.
Zelenskyy put the night's total at 16 ballistic missiles and called the attack “a serious escalation in the Russian operation against our logistics.” He blamed delays in deliveries of interceptors for Patriot and NASAMS air defense systems.
“Artificial and lengthy delays in the delivery of interceptor packages for Patriots and NASAMS, which unfortunately have been happening lately, directly help Russia achieve the goals of its terrorist campaign. Every such delay is a new Russian hit on one target or another.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Russian strikes kill two in Kharkiv and wound civilians across Ukraine
Russian strikes on Kharkiv's Novobavarskyi district on the evening of 26 October killed two men and injured four people, including a 17-year-old girl, oblast head Oleh Syniehubov said. On the morning of 27 October, a Russian missile hit Izium, damaging eight houses.
In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian strike on a gas station wounded two people, and a later strike on a car wounded a 17-year-old boy, the oblast administration said. In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian drones and aerial bombs injured three women in Synelnykove district overnight.
In Chernihiv Oblast, Russian attacks set homes on fire and injured six people, including a child, the oblast administration said. In Chernivtsi Oblast, a drone attack damaged an energy facility, cutting power until 02:15 and injuring two security guards, oblast head Ruslan Osypenko said. Russian attacks have also critically damaged electrical equipment in northern Khmelnytskyi Oblast, the regional power company said.
Over the past day, Russian attacks killed civilians in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv oblasts
On 26 October, Russian attacks killed three people in Donetsk Oblast and wounded 22, oblast head Vadym Filashkin said. His breakdown puts 16 of the wounded in Yasnohirka, where Russian aircraft dropped guided bombs. A Russian drone strike on Pavlohrad killed one person and wounded seven, and a drone killed a woman in Shevchenkove, Kharkiv Oblast. In Kherson, a Russian drone hit a health facility and wounded a nurse. Most of Konotop in Sumy Oblast has been without power since Russian strikes on 24 October, with no forecast for its return, the mayor said.
Patriot systems are the only ones in Ukraine that reliably stop Russia's Iskander-M ballistic missiles, and their missiles have waited almost a month for a US signature. Every week of that wait leaves cities like Kyiv facing waves like this one with fewer interceptors, which is why Kyiv is also asking Lockheed Martin directly for more.
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