Russia launched its largest overnight air assault of the war, setting the main government building in Kyiv on fire and leaving three people dead, including an infant, Ukrainian officials confirmed on Sunday.
Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram that it was the first time the government’s central building had been struck. “Its roof and upper floors were damaged,” she noted, adding that firefighters were working to bring the blaze under control. Witnesses reported seeing flames and heavy smoke rising from the top floor of the structure in Kyiv’s historic Pecherskyi district just after sunrise.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia fired a record 805 drones and 13 missiles during the night. Air defences intercepted 751 drones and four missiles, according to military officials. The massive barrage caused fires and damage across the capital. Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said the body of an infant was pulled from rubble in the Darnytskyi district, where a residential building had been destroyed. Eighteen people were injured in the overnight strikes.
Moscow has not commented on the attack. Both Russia and Ukraine routinely deny targeting civilians, though officials in Kyiv accused Moscow of “deliberately and consciously” striking residential areas.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, the central city of Kremenchuk was rocked by dozens of explosions that cut power to parts of the city and damaged a bridge across the Dnipro River, according to Mayor Vitalii Maletskyi. In Kryvyi Rih, strikes damaged transport and urban infrastructure, though no casualties were reported, local authorities said. The southern city of Odesa also came under fire, with residential buildings and civilian facilities hit, sparking multiple blazes, regional governor Oleh Kiper reported.
The scale of the overnight attack prompted regional responses beyond Ukraine’s borders. Poland said it had scrambled its own and allied aircraft to ensure air safety over western Ukraine as the strikes continued.
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