SRINAGAR: Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that its forces carried out a massive overnight strike on Ukraine, hitting what it described as “strategic targets” using Oreshnik hypersonic missiles and several other types of missiles. Ukrainian authorities said Russia launched 36 missiles and 242 drones during the attack, according to The Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga told local media that, Oreshnik missile strike landed close to the borders of the European Union and Nato, warning that it posed a “grave threat” to European security. He described the attack as a test for Kyiv’s allies.
The assault followed Moscow’s rejection of the latest post-war peacekeeping proposal and formed part of a large-scale attack that set apartment buildings ablaze and killed at least four people in the capital, Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strikes in a statement, detailing extensive damage across multiple regions and confirming that a building housing the Embassy of Qatar was damaged. “In Kyiv and the region, the aftermath of the massive Russian strike is still being dealt with. All necessary services are deployed,” he said, adding that at least 20 residential buildings were damaged. Recovery operations were also continuing in the Lviv region and elsewhere, he said.
In Kyiv and the region, the aftermath of the massive Russian strike is still being dealt with. All necessary services are deployed. Twenty residential buildings alone were damaged. Recovery operations after the strikes also continue in the Lviv region and other regions of our… pic.twitter.com/AMkwfKHOkC
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 9, 2026
Zelenskyy said four people were killed in Kyiv, including a member of an ambulance crew, while dozens were injured. He said a second strike hit a residential building while first responders were providing assistance after the initial attack. He added that a Russian drone damaged a building of the Qatar Embassy, noting Qatar’s mediation efforts to secure the release of prisoners of war and civilians.
The Russian defence ministry did not provide details on the locations or scale of the strikes but said the attack was carried out in retaliation for a drone strike in December that it claimed targeted a residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, AFP reported.
Ukraine denied any involvement in such an attack. Sybiga dismissed Russia’s justification, calling the alleged strike on Putin’s residence fake and describing Moscow’s version of events as Putin’s “hallucinations”.
Ukrainian authorities said Russia’s overnight drone and missile attack killed four people and injured at least 22 others in Kyiv. The assault also targeted critical infrastructure in the western city of Lviv, where Mayor Andriy Sadoviy said an unidentified ballistic missile was used.
Among those killed in Kyiv was an emergency medical worker, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Ukraine’s security service said five rescue workers were injured while responding to strike sites. Several districts of the capital were affected, including Desnyanskyi, where a drone crashed onto the roof of a multi-storey building, and Dnipro district, where falling debris triggered a fire.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the strikes disrupted electricity and water supplies in parts of the city. The attack came hours after Zelenskyy warned that Russia was planning a major offensive, seeking to exploit freezing conditions that were hampering movement and emergency response.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian attack disrupted power and heating supplies for more than half a million people in Russia’s Belgorod border region, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Friday. He said 556,000 people in six municipalities were without electricity, with a similar number also without heating as temperatures remained near freezing, AFP reported.
