KYIV, Ukraine: Kyiv came under heavy Russian aerial attack early Thursday as drones and ballistic missiles struck the Ukrainian capital and several other regions, according to Ukrainian officials and journalists on the ground.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russia was attacking the city with unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic missiles, warning residents that the capital was “under heavy enemy attack.” AFP journalists in Kyiv reported hearing loud explosions and seeing air defence systems operating across the city.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched one of the longest and largest aerial assaults of the war, killing at least six people and wounding dozens nationwide.
“Since midnight, at least 800 Russian drones have already been launched, and the attack is ongoing,” Zelenskyy said on X, adding that the strikes deliberately targeted railway infrastructure and civilian facilities.
It certainly cannot be called a coincidence that one of the longest massive Russian attacks against Ukraine takes place precisely at the time when the President of the United States arrived for a visit to China – a visit from which much is expected. In this difficult geopolitical… pic.twitter.com/lggXvoAJtS
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 13, 2026
According to Ukrainian authorities, attacks struck Kyiv as well as the western city of Lviv, the southern port city of Odesa, the central Dnipro region, and northeastern Kharkiv. Energy infrastructure in the central Poltava region was also reportedly hit.
The Polish military said it scrambled fighter jets as a precaution due to Russian strikes near Ukraine’s western border, while neighbouring Slovakia temporarily closed part of its border with Ukraine for security reasons.
Zelenskyy linked the timing of the assault to the high-profile summit between Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
“In this difficult geopolitical moment, Russia is clearly trying to disrupt the overall political atmosphere,” Zelenskyy said, arguing that Moscow wanted to draw international attention back to the war in Ukraine amid global focus on the Iran conflict.
Before departing for China on Tuesday, Trump told reporters he believed Moscow and Kyiv were nearing a possible agreement to end the conflict. “The end of the war in Ukraine, I really think, is getting very close,” he said.
Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, said the drone assault demonstrated evolving Russian tactics aimed at overwhelming Ukrainian air defences, particularly in western regions near the Belarus border.
Russia has repeatedly denied intentionally targeting civilians, although thousands have been killed since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
