Apartment building damaged in Russian drone attack on Kyiv

A residential high-rise building in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, was struck during a Russian drone attack overnight into September 25, 2026. According to Ukrainian officials, a 14-year-old boy was killed and at least seven other people were injured. The strike occurred in Kyiv's Pecherskyi district and was part of a broader wave of Russian air attacks that night targeting several regions across Ukraine, including the wider Kyiv area, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa.

Ukrainian outlets Ukrinform and the Kyiv Independent reported that multiple drones and missiles were launched at Kyiv during the night. In addition to the residential high-rise in Pecherskyi, a five-story non-residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district was also hit, injuring several people. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack caused fires and damaged buildings, including a commercial structure. Ukrinform reported that damage was recorded in two districts of the city overall, with at least one person injured.

Alongside the strikes on Kyiv, Ukrainian officials reported further incidents elsewhere in the country. In the Odesa region, one person was killed and another injured. A day earlier, on September 24, a Russian attack had also damaged a hospital in Odesa, striking the roof and upper floors of a diagnostic and consultative center. In the Poltava community, private residential houses and railway infrastructure were damaged. The Chernivtsi region reported an attack on energy and border infrastructure, with four unmanned aerial vehicles detected over the area. In Kyiv, the 120-year-old St. Pokrovsky Church, built in 1906, was also damaged.

Meduza, an outlet reporting on Russia from exile, largely confirms these central points, stating that Russian forces launched a massive overnight drone strike against several Ukrainian regions, including Kyiv, the Kyiv region, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa. It reported that a teenager was killed in Kyiv and that a hospital was damaged in Zaporizhzhia. This account aligns closely with reporting from Ukrainian media.

Coverage from British and Singaporean outlets, including The Independent and Straits Times, similarly confirms the death of a child and multiple injuries from the drone strike on the Kyiv high-rise. These reports also place the incident within a broader geopolitical context: The Independent noted a warning from Danish intelligence about a growing risk of a limited Russian attack on NATO member states, indicating that events in Kyiv are being watched internationally amid concerns about a possible wider escalation of the conflict.

At the same time, Russian-linked reporting described Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory during the same night. According to Straits Times and Al Jazeera, Ukraine deployed a large drone swarm against an industrial plant in Russia's Perm region. In the Rostov region, Governor Yuri Slyusar said a drone attack struck the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, forcing it to temporarily suspend operations, while air defense units reportedly destroyed around 50 drones overnight. Other Russian-sourced reports mentioned two people killed in Ukrainian drone attacks, along with strikes on an oil refinery and a passenger train.

Russian state news agency TASS also reported remarks by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who accused Western media of using claims about drone incidents in EU countries against Russia. This statement, dated September 22, does not directly reference the Kyiv attack but reflects ongoing disagreement between Moscow and Western governments over how such drone incidents are attributed.

No official Russian statement addressing the specific strike on the residential building in Kyiv appears in the available reports. The overall number of damaged buildings in the capital and the full extent of damage across the affected regions cannot be conclusively determined from the material currently available; casualty figures also appear to have been updated over the course of the day, as authorities revised tolls. A report from September 24 noted that the number of people injured in a Russian attack on Kyiv had already risen to nine, with two people killed, suggesting that some of these figures may reflect attacks occurring over a longer period than just the September 25 strike alone.

The events fit into a recurring pattern of reciprocal aerial attacks since the war began, with residential areas in Ukraine and industrial or energy facilities in Russia both being targeted. How the situation will develop in the coming days, and whether further strikes will follow, remains unclear based on current reporting.