Russia carried out a combined air attack on Ukraine overnight on December 27, deploying a wide range of weapons in one of the most intensive strikes in recent weeks. According to Ukrainian authorities, the assault involved around 500 attack drones, 22 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles, four Iskander ballistic missiles, five Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles and six Kalibr missiles, hitting targets across much of the country.
Kyiv and the surrounding region were among the primary targets, with the capital attacked from multiple directions in several waves within minutes. Explosions, fires and damage were reported in seven districts of Kyiv, highlighting the scale and coordination of the strike.
Widespread destruction across Kyiv neighbourhoods
In the Darnytskyi district, drone debris and a direct hit damaged a 24-storey residential building in the Pozniaky area, destroying the upper and technical floors. Fires also broke out in nearby private homes, forcing the evacuation of 10 residents from a neighbouring care home.
Elsewhere in the city, a fire erupted at a vehicle service station in the Holosiivskyi district after a drone strike, while in the Dniprovskyi district a depot was damaged and an 18-storey building caught fire. In Solomianskyi, a strike hit a dormitory belonging to the National Aviation University.
Heating, power and critical services disrupted
As a result of the attack, more than 4,000 residential buildings in Kyiv were left without centralised heating, alongside 187 kindergartens, 138 schools and 22 social institutions. Parts of the city also experienced electricity outages, compounding the impact during winter conditions.
In the Kyiv region, damage was recorded in four districts: Vyshhorod, Boryspil, Bucha and Obukhiv. In Vyshhorod, one person was rescued from the rubble of a destroyed house, while blast waves shattered windows in nearby apartment blocks. The town was temporarily left completely without power due to damage to energy infrastructure.
Industrial and energy facilities deliberately targeted
Ukrainian officials said the strike was aimed at energy and industrial infrastructure. In the Obukhiv and Boryspil districts, missiles and drones hit critical infrastructure sites and industrial warehouses, triggering large fires. Damage to power grids left several settlements without electricity, with emergency repair work starting even before air raid alerts were lifted.
In Kyiv, smoke from multiple fires caused heavy smog to hang over the city in the morning hours, underscoring the broader environmental and public health impact of the attack.
Rising casualties across several regions
By 11:30 a.m. local time on December 27, the number of injured in Kyiv had risen to 28, including 13 people hospitalised. One person was killed in the capital, and two children aged nine and 16 were among the wounded. Rescue teams continued clearing debris and extinguishing fires.
In the Bila Tserkva district of the Kyiv region, a woman born in 1978 was killed and eight others were injured. Authorities in the Kharkiv region reported four dead and seven wounded. Beyond the capital area, strikes were reported in Odesa, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Poltava, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
Escalation amid diplomatic context
The scale of the strike left nearly a third of Kyiv without heating and parts of the city’s left bank without electricity, directly affecting the capital’s ability to endure winter conditions. Damage to industrial and infrastructure facilities in Kyiv’s outskirts further weakened the country’s capacity to sustain essential services and recovery efforts.
The attack came a day before planned talks between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump, a timing Ukrainian officials view as an attempt by Moscow to exert pressure through force. The breadth and intensity of the assault reinforced assessments in Kyiv that Russia is prioritising escalation and coercion rather than signalling readiness for de-escalation.
