Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says the country received no advance warning from its partners before Russia launched a major overnight ballistic missile and drone assault, damaging more than 10 energy facilities and cutting electricity to over half a million households.
Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and its surrounding region, alongside more than 200 drones targeting locations across Ukraine, from Kharkiv and Dnipro in the east to Odesa in the south and Volyn and Rivne in the west.
Officials said the attacks killed a woman in Kyiv and two other people in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih.
Zelenskiy criticised the lack of early warning, saying the strikes came in several waves overnight. He also faulted Ukraine’s partners over delays in supplying air defence missiles while sanctions against Russia were being eased or delayed.
The complaint comes amid growing tensions between Zelenskiy and United States President Donald Trump’s administration over Washington’s military support for Ukraine and its approach to Moscow.
Ukraine has relied on US intelligence throughout the nearly five-year war to detect Russian ballistic missile launches and provide early warnings of incoming attacks.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Kyiv received no warning before the first ballistic missile strike but was informed ahead of a second attack. He said Ukrainian experts were investigating the incident with international partners, adding that similar situations had occurred previously.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied that Washington had suspended some intelligence-sharing arrangements with Ukraine, contradicting Zelenskiy’s account that the United States had briefly curtailed such cooperation.
Ukraine’s Air Force said its air defences intercepted 247 targets, comprising four cruise missiles and 243 drones.
Russia’s Defence Ministry described the operation as a “massive strike” involving precision weapons and attack drones targeting Ukrainian defence industry facilities, drone and cruise missile storage sites, and a data centre.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said the energy sector was the main target, with damage reported across the country. The Energy Ministry subsequently introduced rolling power cuts for households and businesses as repair crews worked to restore electricity supplies.
Koretskyi added that railway stations, pharmaceutical warehouses, commercial properties and residential buildings were also damaged.
In Kyiv, a subway station on the capital’s left bank was hit, while a 25-storey residential building sustained damage, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Boluwatife Enome
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