Scale of the overnight assault
Russia launched 656 drones and 73 missiles at Ukraine overnight into Tuesday morning, according to Ukraine's air force. Ukrainian air defenses destroyed or neutralized 40 missiles and 602 drones, a 92 percent interception rate, but 38 sites across the country were struck, with Kyiv as the main target. CBS News reported at least 13 killed and more than 100 wounded.
CBS News reported at least nine people died in Dnipro when a four-story apartment building collapsed, including one child, with several people still unaccounted for under the rubble. Deutsche Welle cited at least seven killed in Dnipro. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported four people killed and at least 58 wounded, including two children, in the capital's "mass enemy attack." Ten people, including a child, were wounded in Kharkiv.
Zelenskyy's warning proved accurate
Zelenskyy had warned residents for days that Russia was preparing a major assault. On Friday, he stated "we have intelligence information about Russia preparing a new massive strike" and urged people to "protect your lives." His warning was followed by residents crowding into subway stations and underground shelters from Monday night until about 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Russia's military claimed it carried out a "massive strike" using high-precision, long-range weapons targeting Ukraine's military-industrial complex. Moscow said it used hypersonic missiles and claimed to have hit designated targets in Kyiv and the regions of Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk, as well as energy and transport infrastructure used by the Ukrainian military.
Civilian toll and infrastructure damage
Kyiv Mayor Klitschko reported fires at two locations in open areas, including one near a kindergarten, after cars caught fire from falling missile debris. The attack cut electricity to 140,000 residents, but power company DTEK restored power to 110,000 by Tuesday.
Olha Mudra, standing before a destroyed apartment building with her six-year-old daughter, described the moment to Reuters: "We couldn't understand what was happening—some kind of apocalypse? Everything was covered with debris, everything in smoke, you could see nothing."
Ukraine's escalating air defense gap
Zelenskyy called on Europe to develop its own air-ballistic defense systems and urged more support from Washington. "Europe needs its own anti-ballistic defence so that this war can finally be brought to an end. And assistance from the United States in supplying missiles for Patriot systems is absolutely necessary," he wrote on social media. He had written to President Trump and Congress the previous week asking for Patriot systems to respond to intensifying Russian air attacks.
Al Jazeera correspondent Audrey MacAlpine noted that "the biggest area which Ukraine struggles in is intercepting these ballistic missiles" due to insufficient weaponry. Ukraine's air force intercepted about 90 percent of incoming drones and missiles in May. Russia launched a record 8,150 long-range drones that month, up 24 percent from April.
Ukrainian retaliation and internal Russian concerns
A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person in Russia's Kursk region near the border, according to regional governor Alexander Khinshtein. Another drone sparked a fire at an oil refinery in the southwestern city of Krasnodar. Ukraine has stepped up strikes on occupied territories and Russia in retaliation for daily bombardments.
Meanwhile, senior Russian government officials have warned President Vladimir Putin that spending on the war in Ukraine is on an unaffordable path, marking the most serious sign of internal division in Moscow since the full-scale invasion began. The escalating costs of the campaign coincide with Russia's intensified attacks, even as Ukraine struggles to replenish its air defenses.
