Russia launched a devastating wave of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones against Kyiv in the early hours of Monday, killing at least ten people and wounding 46 others, including five children, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv's City Military Administration. The attack, which sent explosions echoing across the Ukrainian capital from around 1:40 a.m. to 3:15 a.m. local time, struck residential high-rise buildings in multiple districts. In the Darnytsia district, debris hit a 25-storey apartment block, trapping residents on upper floors, while a missile struck a building in the Podilskyi district — a central neighbourhood popular with young Kyivans — causing a partial collapse. Fires broke out in several apartment complexes, warehouses, and a garage workshop, with rescue teams still combing through wreckage by Monday morning at more than 20 sites across the city. At least one further death was reported in the surrounding Kyiv region.

The strikes came just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky had publicly warned that intelligence indicated a second large-scale Russian assault on the capital was imminent. They follow an even deadlier barrage last Thursday that killed at least 30 people — one of the worst attacks on Kyiv in months. Russia's Defence Ministry described Monday's operation as a "massive attack" using long-range weapons launched from air, land, and sea, and claimed to have also struck military airfields in other Ukrainian regions. Moscow has framed its recent strikes as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on power infrastructure inside Russia. Ukraine, for its part, continued its own drone campaign overnight: 47 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Leningrad region, and the mayor of Moscow reported that 11 drones heading toward the Russian capital were also intercepted. Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure around Sevastopol — the Crimean port city of roughly 550,000 people that serves as the base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet — left the city without power on Monday morning.

The timing of the assault carries unmistakable political weight. NATO leaders from all 32 member states are gathering in Ankara, Turkey, for a summit beginning Tuesday, with Zelensky scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday on the sidelines. Peace negotiations remain deadlocked, and Zelensky used the moment to press Western allies urgently for more air defence capabilities — particularly interceptor missiles for Patriot systems, which are among the few weapons capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles. "Any delay with missiles for our air defence means the loss of lives, and it encourages Russia to continue the war," he wrote on X. He has also appealed for U.S. licences that would allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missiles domestically.

At the Ankara summit, European NATO members and Canada are expected to commit to providing €70 billion in military aid to Ukraine in both 2026 and 2027, according to diplomatic sources. But the immediate priority for Kyiv is concrete and rapid action on air defences. On the ground, frontlines have remained largely static in recent months, with drone warfare hampering the movement of heavy vehicles on both sides. Russia claimed on Friday to have captured Kostiantynivka, a Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Donetsk region that has been a key Russian objective, though Kyiv firmly denied the claim, saying fighting was ongoing. The escalation on the eve of the summit underscores the precarious state of a conflict that has already become the deadliest in Europe since the Second World War.