Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults of the war overnight, firing more than 40 cruise missiles, hypersonic ballistic missiles, and an estimated 168 drones at Kyiv and surrounding regions, killing at least 16 civilians — 15 in the capital and one in the surrounding area — and wounding more than 40 others. The nine-hour barrage, which Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky confirmed stretched through most of the night, damaged some 30 residential buildings, a children's hospital, a school, and a kindergarten across the city. In Kyiv's Solomianskyi district, the top two floors of a nine-storey apartment block were destroyed, leaving two residents dead and nine injured in the rubble. Power was cut to roughly 90,000 homes, though more than half had their electricity restored by the following morning.

Ukraine's air force said its defences intercepted around 90 percent of the drones and most of the cruise missiles, but was unable to clarify how many ballistic missiles — the hardest category to intercept — had been shot down. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko called for Friday to be declared a day of mourning. Ukraine's emergency services worked across twelve affected sites in multiple districts, battling fires at warehouses, vehicles, and residential buildings. The attack also struck a border crossing between the Odesa region and Moldova, a gas installation in the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine, and food warehouses and Red Cross facilities in the Boryspil area east of Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, calling the assault a calculated escalation.