Russian attack kills at least 24 in Ukraine
A large-scale Russian missile and drone attack killed at least 24 people across Ukraine, including four children, and wounded at least 98. The strikes also caused power cuts in several regions as Russia intensified attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
By Anastasiia Malenko KYIV, Ukraine -- A large-scale Russian missile and drone attack killed at least 24 people across Ukraine early on Wednesday, including four children. The bombardment, part of Russia's nonstop campaign of airstrikes against Ukrainian cities, involved 70 missiles and 130 drones, pounding residential housing, energy infrastructure and businesses. It was the second heavy attack on Ukraine's energy grid in recent days, and one of the deadliest barrages in recent weeks.
Russia is starting its winter campaign of strikes against Ukraine's energy infrastructure early this year, exploiting gaps in the country's air defenses, including a shortage of Patriot antimissile interceptors. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who turned 74 on Wednesday, is aiming to break Ukraine's economy and its society's will to keep up the war effort against Russia's full-scale invasion, launched in early 2022. Putin has rejected calls to cease fire and freeze the front line from Ukraine and its Western allies, insisting on fulfilling his original war aims, which amount to dismantling and subjugating Ukraine.
As Russia's army struggles to advance on the battlefield, Moscow is escalating its air war against Ukraine's cities. The town of Pryluky in northern Ukraine suffered the heaviest toll. A Russian cruise missile hit an apartment building there, killing 18 people, local officials said. Among the dead were an 8-year-old boy and three one-year-olds, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.
Emergency services were searching the rubble of collapsed floors of the five-story building on Wednesday, looking for survivors and carrying out bodies including those of children. Zelensky called the attack on Pryluky "a birthday 'gift' to Putin" from the Russian army. The attack in the early hours of Wednesday killed additional two people in the capital city of Kyiv, and four in Kremenchuk and near Oleksandriya, both in central Ukraine. In total, at least 98 people were wounded across the country.
Russia's Ministry of Defense said the attack targeted Ukrainian port infrastructure and military industries, including facilities connected to Ukrainian missile and drone producer Fire Point. Zelensky said last week that Ukraine had used a ballistic missile made by Fire Point for the first time in combat, introducing a hard-to-stop weapon that Moscow already uses regularly to deadly effect. Ukraine's air force said it intercepted 44 of the 70 cruise or ballistic missiles and 117 of the 130 drones. Ukraine's air defenses have struggled in recent weeks against Russia's new generation of jet-powered drones, which fly faster than older propeller-driven models.
The country's defenders have been using F-16's and other fighter planes, machine-gun turrets and interceptor drones to down Russian drones. The air force's data suggest that 82% of jet-powered drones were intercepted on Wednesday, a better performance than in recent weeks. However, the drones and missiles that get through are doing mounting damage to Ukraine's cities and economy, while claiming ever more civilian victims. The United Nations said this week that it had verified more than 15,000 civilians killed or wounded in Ukraine in the first eight months of this year, a sharp increase from last year.
Wednesday's strikes led to power cuts in several regions of Ukraine. The country is bracing itself for potentially the harshest winter of the war as Russia takes aim at its already battered electricity and heating infrastructure, as well as water, fuel and other vital services. com (END) Dow Jones Newswires October 07, 2026 11:25 ET (15:25 GMT) Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. The statements in this document shall not be considered as an objective or independent explanation of the matters.
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