A fresh wave of Russian drones swept into Ukraine’s Kyiv region, smashing into apartment blocks and warehouses for a second day in a row, as officials warned the renewed aerial campaign is tightening its grip on daily life and critical infrastructure.
Prolonged air raids in Kyiv yesterday essentially locked down the Ukrainian capital for 15 hours, the
Foreign Ministry said, choking the economy and severely disrupting civilian life more than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
Even longer alerts are a daily reality in regions closer to the front line, the ministry said.
Ukrainian officials say Russian drone and missile strikes are again targeting the power system in what they describe as an annual effort to “weaponise winter”.
In the southern Kherson region on the Black Sea, where glide bombs a day earlier forced a combined heat and power plant to shut down, authorities forecast a cold season marked by lengthy outages and advised residents to relocate if possible.
In the Kyiv region, Russian strikes damaged 14 warehouses, 16 private houses, three apartment buildings and 16 vehicles, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv regional military administration.
The State Emergency Service said a second drone struck one location after emergency teams had arrived — a tactic the military calls a “double tap” aimed at first responders.
A plume of smoke from a fire in a Kyiv suburb rises behind the Motherland Monument
Officials said the attacks killed one person and injured two others.
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed its forces overnight hit a warehouse in the Kyiv region allegedly storing Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missiles and fuel for rocket boosters.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately confirm the assertion, and The Associated Press could not verify it.
In recent days, numerous warehouses across Kyiv and the surrounding region have been damaged, including sites holding books, food and other consumer goods.
The latest assault extended into daylight, and Mr Tkachenko urged residents to remain in safe places and follow air raid warnings.
Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council, said Russia is sending small numbers of fast jet-powered drones in waves designed to hamper the capital.
“The goal is to exhaust air defences and the population,” he wrote on social media.
Regional officials said air quality deteriorated after the strikes, advising people in some areas to keep windows shut and reduce time outdoors.
Nova Poshta said four Russian glide bombs destroyed one of its sorting centres in the northern Sumy region, while a drone hit one of its depots in the Kyiv region.
In Kherson — around 70% of which is under Russian control — authorities urged tens of thousands of residents to move to safer parts of the country amid the risk of prolonged electricity and heating failures this winter.
“Kherson may be without electricity and heat not for hours or days, but for a long time. And we need to prepare for this now,” said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration, in a social media post late yesterday.
Read more: Russia intensifies daytime drone strikes on Ukrainian cities
Mr Prokudin said Russia has stepped up attacks on vital infrastructure there, dropping 170 glide bombs on the Kherson region since 1 July — more than in the first six months of the year.
He said Russia has also launched more than 1,700 attack drones over the past two months, increasingly deploying jet-powered Shahed and Gerbera drones against critical facilities, while smaller-drone attacks climbed to 6,500 in the past week alone.
Authorities will provide evacuation assistance, transport, resettlement and social support for anyone who chooses to leave, he said.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy is lowering its 2026 GDP growth forecast, citing the impact of Russian strikes that have constrained exports — particularly grain shipped through Black Sea ports.
Growth had been expected at about 1.3% this year, but the attacks are now projected to pull that down to 0.8%, Economy Minister Oleksandr Kravchenko said, according to Interfax-Ukraine.
Mr Kravchenko said Ukraine’s economy expanded by 0.6% in the first quarter and then recovered to post modest growth by the end of June.
But he said further gains are being capped by damage to energy and logistics networks and by port blockades.
Russia launched 164 drones at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.
It did not report missiles, which often accompany Russia’s air attacks.
In the northern Sumy region, a Russian glide bomb strike killed a 61-year-old man and wounded seven others, said Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy regional military administration.
Russian forces dropped eight guided aerial bombs on Sumy in a single evening
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences overnight destroyed 512 Ukrainian drones across 18
Russian regions, as well as over illegally annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Ukrainian forces struck the Slavneft-Yanos refinery in Russia’s Yaroslavl region overnight, sparking a fire, as Kyiv continues targeting Russia’s oil sector.
The General Staff said a blaze broke out at the facility, about 1,000 kilometres from Ukraine’s border.
It said the plant produces petrol, diesel and aviation fuel, fuel oil, lubricants and other petroleum products.
In the Yaroslavl region, a Ukrainian drone attack this morning killed one person and injured 27 others, Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said.
He said 10 of the injured were hurt when drone debris struck a bus.
He added that unspecified “industrial infrastructure”, residential areas and unidentified retail facilities were hit.
In Russia’s Moscow region — which surrounds but does not include the capital — a drone hit a supermarket, damaging it and shattering windows at a nearby outpatient clinic, Governor Andrei Vorobyov said on Telegram.
In Sevastopol, the port city in Crimea, a drone severely damaged a five-storey residential building, according to the Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev.
Four people were wounded, he said.
He posted images showing a blackened building with blown-out windows and balconies.
