Russian forces struck Kyiv and several other Ukrainian cities in a large-scale overnight attack on Thursday, killing three people — including a 12-year-old boy — injuring more than 20 others, and causing significant damage to residential buildings, officials said.

In Kyiv, the capital, rescuers pulled a child from the rubble of a collapsed residential building in the Podilsky district. Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed two deaths in the city: the 12-year-old boy and a 35-year-old woman. At least ten people were wounded in the capital, including several medical workers. Fires broke out in the Obolonsky district after missile debris struck a building, and a number of cars were set ablaze. Residents were urged by military administration head Tymur Tkachenko to remain in shelters until air alerts were lifted. A separate attack on Dnipro, a major city in central Ukraine, killed one additional person, according to regional administration head Oleksandr Ganzha. Ten people were wounded there, including a 40-year-old woman hospitalised in serious condition, though it was unclear whether she was the fatality. Strikes also hit Kharkiv, a northeastern city near the Russian border, wounding a 77-year-old woman and a 66-year-old man, and the southern port city of Odesa, where five people were injured.

The assault comes just days after a 32-hour Orthodox Easter ceasefire — agreed to temporarily pause hostilities — collapsed amid mutual accusations of widespread violations. Russia had launched 98 drones during a subsequent overnight attack, 87 of which Ukrainian air defences reported shooting down. Moscow has maintained a near-nightly drone campaign against Ukraine throughout the four-year war and has recently extended its strikes into daylight hours, escalating pressure on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.

The strikes underscore the widening humanitarian toll of a conflict that has persisted since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The targeting of densely populated residential areas in multiple cities simultaneously signals a continued Russian strategy of broad pressure across Ukrainian territory, even as diplomatic efforts — however fragile — continue in the background. For ordinary Ukrainians, the collapse of each temporary truce has deepened fears that a durable ceasefire remains a distant prospect.