Russia launched one of its largest overnight attacks on Ukraine in recent months, firing more than 650 drones and missiles at multiple cities and killing at least 14 people, Ukrainian authorities reported on Thursday. The strikes, which hit the capital Kyiv, the southern port city of Odesa, and the central Dnipropetrovsk region, came just hours after the expiry of a 32-hour Orthodox Easter ceasefire that both sides accused each other of violating extensively.

In Kyiv, two waves of attacks struck in the early hours — the first around 2:30 a.m. local time, the second around 3:30 a.m. — followed by a further assault during the morning. A drone flying at low altitude crashed directly into an 18-storey residential building in the city's Podilsky district, and rescuers pulled a child from the rubble. Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed at least four deaths, including a 12-year-old boy, and said more than 45 people were wounded, among them several medical workers. Across the capital, fires broke out near a shopping centre and in other districts, while hotels, government buildings and apartment blocks sustained damage from both direct impacts and falling debris.

Odesa, a strategically important Black Sea port in southern Ukraine, suffered the heaviest casualties, with at least seven people killed and more than ten wounded. Port infrastructure was also damaged and fires broke out across the city. In the Dnipropetrovsk region — a large administrative area in central Ukraine — three people were killed and at least ten injured, with damage reported to residential buildings and an educational facility.

Ukraine's air force said its defences intercepted 31 missiles and 636 drones during the night, one of the highest interception figures reported since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Separately, Ukrainian forces carried out their own drone strikes on Russia overnight. In Tuapse, a port city in the southern Russian Krasnodar Krai region on the Black Sea — an important hub for oil, coal and fertiliser exports — two children aged five and fourteen were killed, according to the region's governor. Russia's Defence Ministry stated that its air defences shot down 207 Ukrainian drones.

The scale of the assault underscores the continuing intensity of the air war, which has seen Russia fire hundreds of drones at Ukrainian territory on an almost nightly basis throughout the conflict. The attacks also highlight the fragility of any pause in hostilities: the Easter truce, which had raised hopes of even a brief respite for civilians, ended with recriminations from both sides and was quickly followed by some of the heaviest bombardment in recent weeks.