Russian drones and missiles have pounded the Ukrainian capital and other cities, hours after the cancellation of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, killing six people including a six-month-old baby, a 12-year-old girl and a woman, and damaging key energy facilities and several high-rise residential buildings.
The attacks, involving over 400 drones and 28 missiles, lasted most of Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning as Kyiv was hit by at least four ballistic missiles. A drone strike on Kharkiv hit a kindergarten, killing one man and injuring seven others.
A series of loud explosions were audible across Kyiv on Wednesday and towards dawn and beginning of the morning rush-hour, air defences targeting Russian drones could be heard above the sound of traffic.
The Russian drone strike on the Kharkiv kindergarten came later on Wednesday morning. Footage from the immediate aftermath of the attack showed desperate parents and rescue workers carrying crying children to safety from the building.
“There was a direct hit on a private kindergarten in the Kholodnoyarkiy district of Kharkiv. A fire started,” Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said in a statement.
The Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, posted on X: “There is no justification for a drone strike on a kindergarten, nor can there ever be. Clearly, Russia is growing more brazen. These strikes are Russia’s spit in the face to everyone who insists on a peaceful resolution. Thugs and terrorists can only be put in their place by force.”
A Russian drone strike hit a kindergarten in Kharkiv – after a massive attack overnight. Unfortunately, one person has been killed – my condolences to the bereaved family. As of now, seven people have been injured and are receiving medical care. All the children have been… pic.twitter.com/J6PGx0u7ZZ
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 22, 2025
The latest strikes came a day after efforts to settle the nearly four-year war hit another impasse with the cancellation of a planned meeting in Budapest between the US presidentand his Russian counterpart.
Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he feared Russia was preparing to escalate it attacks as the US retreated from hints it might supply Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles.
The strikes on Ukraine came as it was reported that Kyiv had launched a substantial attack on a major chemical plant in Bryansk, in south-western Russia, with Storm Shadow missiles, which are supplied by Britain and France. Ukrainian drones also hit Russia’s Mordovia region.
The first explosions could be heard across Kyiv shortly after 1am and then more about half an hour later. Blasts were also reported in Zaporizhzhia, Poltava and Dnipro with strikes and air raid alerts continuing into the morning.
Emergency services rescued 10 people after a fire caused by drone wreckage hit the sixth floor of a 16-storey residential building, while the strikes also blew out windows of a medical facility and debris was found at another residential building, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported on his Telegram channel.
In the Darnytskyi district of the capital, emergency services were responding after drone debris hit a 17-storey residential building causing a fire on five floors.
In the Desnianskyi district, 20 people were rescued after the facade of a 10-storey building was damaged and a gas pipe caught fire.
Strikes in Ukraine’s eastern Poltava region damaged oil and gas facilities, said the local governor, Volodymyr Kohut, while the city of Dnipro reported heavy strikes.
The strikes also targeted the country’s energy infrastructure, leaving thousands without heating and electricity across Ukraine, according to the energy ministry.
“Due to a massive missile and drone attack on the energy infrastructure, emergency power outages have been introduced in most regions of Ukraine,” it said in a statement.
Russia has increased sharply the number and intensity of attacks on the Ukrainian energy system in recent weeks, targeting power plants and gas facilities.
The latest attack came as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was due in Sweden on Wednesday for talks with the country’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, at the beginning of an intense period of European diplomacy.
A meeting of the “coalition of the willing” is due to take place on Friday in London to shore up support for Ukraine in the face of the latest backsliding by Trump.
“The prime minister andpresident Zelenskyy will hold a joint press conference to present news regarding defence exports,” the Swedish government said. In connection with the meeting, the leaders will also visit a company, it added.
The latest airstrikes underlined the failure of the most recent efforts by Trump to persuade the Russian president to agree to a ceasefire even as the US president tried to strong-arm Zelenskyy into giving up the key eastern Donbas region at an acrimonious meeting last week.
While Zelenskyy had flown to Washington hopeful of securing long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, a two-hour phone conversation between Trump and Putin beforehand led to an abrupt U-turn, with Trump reportedly warning Zelenskyy that Putin would “destroy” Ukraine if he did not agree to Russia’s terms.
In remarks at the White House on Tuesday, Trump suggested that Moscow’s refusal to cease fighting along the current frontline remained a key sticking point. Earlier, a White House official had said there were “no plans” for a Trump-Putin meeting “in the immediate future”.
