Russia Launches Largest Drone Attack on Ukraine Since War’s Start, Ukrainian Military Reports

Russia has unleashed its largest drone strike on Ukraine since the beginning of the war, Ukrainian officials reported Sunday. The overnight attack saw the launch of 273 Shahed drones, mainly targeting Kyiv’s central region. This comes despite recent peace talks between Russia and Ukraine earlier this week.

Ukraine’s military confirmed the strike, which resulted in significant casualties. A 28-year-old woman was killed, and three others, including a four-year-old child, were injured. Mykola Kalashnik, the governor of Kyiv, confirmed the deaths and injuries in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, along with European leaders, sharply criticized Russia’s actions, with Ruslan Stefanchuk, head of Ukraine’s parliament, calling the attack “terror in its purest form.” He also pointed out that air raid alarms sounded for almost nine hours.

The drone strikes destroyed residential buildings, damaged a high-rise, and set multiple garages on fire. Emergency services responded quickly, deploying 55 rescue workers to the scene.

In addition to the drone assault, Russian shelling in the Donetsk region killed one person and wounded eight others. Russian forces also targeted the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions with additional drone strikes, according to local military authorities.

The attack follows a deadly strike on a bus in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region on Saturday, where at least nine people were killed and seven others were injured. This occurred just hours after the first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in months. However, the negotiations, held in Turkey, failed to produce significant progress.

While the talks included discussions about a potential ceasefire, a prisoner swap, and a possible meeting between the leaders of both nations, no breakthrough was reached. Russia insisted on Ukraine ceding more territory, a demand that Kyiv has firmly rejected.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a recent state television interview, reiterated his desire to “eliminate” the causes of the conflict, though it appears Moscow's position remains largely unchanged.

U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak with Putin on Monday, as part of ongoing efforts to explore ways to end the conflict. Trump has previously expressed doubts about making significant progress in peace talks without direct communication with the Russian president.