Russia launched one of its heaviest combined missile and drone attacks on Kyiv in the early hours of Monday, killing at least 26 people in the Ukrainian capital and its surrounding region, with the death toll climbing throughout the day as rescue teams searched through the rubble. The strike — involving 68 missiles, many of them ballistic, and 351 attack drones — came just four days after another major Russian assault killed more than 30 people in Kyiv, and on the eve of a crucial NATO summit opening in the Turkish capital, Ankara. At least two more people were killed in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and two in Sumy, a northeastern city near the Russian border, bringing the nationwide toll to at least 30.

The attack punched a crater through a nine-storey apartment block in Kyiv's Podilsky district, splitting the building in two. Around 30 residential buildings across the capital were hit, and in Vyshneve — a town on the outskirts of Kyiv — some 500 residents were evacuated after secondary explosions, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said suggested a munitions facility may have been struck. Emergency workers carried bodies out on white sheets as survivors described near misses. "I felt the need to pray," said 60-year-old resident Oleksandr Kolomiyets. A 36-year-old woman said she and her child survived by a "miracle" after retreating to the ground floor. "Russia wants to destroy us," she said. "There is no place that is safe in Ukraine."

A critical gap in Ukraine's air defences was laid bare by the attack. Ukrainian air force figures showed that defences intercepted 37 of 39 cruise missiles and 326 of 351 drones, but failed to stop a single one of the 23 or more ballistic missiles fired. Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov described a "critical shortage" of interceptor missiles for US-made Patriot air defence systems, warning that Russia was exploiting the gap by deploying ballistic missiles in unprecedented numbers. Delivery contracts for new Patriot interceptors exist, he said, but supplies will not begin arriving until next year. Zelensky appealed to allied nations to transfer missiles from their own stockpiles immediately, arguing that Patriot interceptors sitting in warehouses abroad were effectively encouraging Russian strikes on civilian areas. "It is simply absurd that in the modern world, production has still not been organised to the extent that is necessary to protect people from ballistic terror," he said. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, in Ankara for the summit, said allies "must continue to ensure Ukraine gets what it needs."

While Kyiv absorbed the attack, Ukraine struck back deep inside Russian territory. The Ukrainian army announced a drone strike on the Omsk oil refinery — one of Russia's largest — located roughly 2,500 kilometres from the Ukrainian front lines in western Siberia. Zelensky said the operation used upgraded "Fire Point" long-range drones and called it a significant achievement, declaring: "Siberia is now also within reach of Ukrainian precision." The governor of Omsk region, which borders Kazakhstan, confirmed the strike, saying air defences had intercepted most of the drones and that there were no casualties. Ukraine also reportedly struck two fuel tankers in the Black Sea supplying Russian-occupied Crimea, and hit targets in Odessa, Kharkiv, and the city of Dnipro.

The attacks unfold at a moment of acute diplomatic intensity. Zelensky is attending the NATO summit in Ankara, where he is expected to meet US President Donald Trump on Wednesday. Trump said Monday that a resolution to the war was "closer than people think" and that Russian President Vladimir Putin "wants to end it." The White House said Trump would "follow up" with Putin after the summit meeting. However, US-led peace efforts have so far produced no concrete results, and Zelensky has made clear he expects the Ankara summit to deliver more than what he called "hollow gestures" — insisting that tangible decisions on air defence support must emerge from the talks.