Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned what he described as one of Russia's most deliberately cruel attacks on his country, after a massive overnight bombardment killed at least 28 people — including five children — and wounded more than 100 others across Ukraine. The assault, which involved 70 missiles and dozens of Shahed attack drones, struck on the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a timing Zelensky said was no coincidence.
"This is the kind of birthday present that Putin gave himself: the killing of children, the killing of people," Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the nation.
Apartment block destroyed in Pryluky, children among the dead
The single deadliest strike hit the northern city of Pryluky in the Chernihiv region, where a Russian missile demolished a five-storey residential apartment block, causing multiple sections of the building to collapse entirely. Regional Governor Vyacheslav Chaus confirmed 20 people died in Pryluky alone, five of them children.
Emergency crews — including an excavator and dozens of rescue workers equipped with shovels — spent hours picking through the rubble. Workers used ladders to reach upper-floor survivors in what remained of the structure, eventually bringing out 15 people alive. Around 55 residents of the town were wounded in the strike.
Pryluky's deputy mayor, Danylo Savenko, said he had sprinted to an air raid shelter with his wife the moment he heard missiles overhead. "There's a lot of destruction, especially in the town centre," he said.
Beyond Pryluky, Zelensky confirmed civilian deaths in the capital Kyiv, where falling drone debris killed two people in a suburb on Wednesday evening, as well as in the central cities of Oleksandria and Kremenchuk. Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi placed the nationwide death toll at 28.
'The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively'
Zelensky minced no words in describing the intent behind the attack. "The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively," he said. "This was one of the most vile strikes."
Russia's defence ministry offered a markedly different characterisation, claiming its forces had conducted a "massive strike" targeting military-industrial facilities in Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions using high-precision weapons launched from land, sea and air platforms, as well as drones.
Many of the missiles fired were high-velocity ballistic munitions — a growing challenge for Ukrainian air defences. Zelensky said ballistic missiles remain the country's most pressing defensive problem, and that he and his team were "every day looking for Patriot missile interception systems that can and must protect people's lives."
Ukraine received a new $A1.9 billion tranche from the European Union amid the ongoing conflict, though the source material does not detail the precise timing or purpose of that disbursement.
Air defences improve, but ballistic threat remains critical
Ukraine's air force reported intercepting roughly 80 per cent of the 46 jet-powered drones launched during the attack — a notable jump from recent weeks, when the average interception rate had hovered between 50 and 60 per cent. The air force did not explain the improvement and had not responded to requests for clarification at the time of reporting.
Since the northern summer, Russia has escalated its use of new high-velocity drones in near-continuous strikes on Kyiv and other population centres, with Ukrainian air defences frequently struggling to track and neutralise them at speed. It is the ballistic missiles, however, that Zelensky identified as the gravest ongoing threat to civilian life.
The overnight attack is part of a broader pattern of intensifying Russian bombardment that has sent civilian casualties soaring in recent months. This latest strike follows a string of deadly assaults on Ukrainian cities — including a previous large-scale missile and drone attack on Kyiv — as diplomatic efforts to end the more than four-year conflict remain deadlocked.
International pressure and diplomatic friction
The strikes come amid significant diplomatic turbulence. US President Donald Trump announced he had reached an agreement with Putin to allow Russia to release large quantities of diesel onto global markets, a move framed as addressing soaring American fuel prices ahead of midterm elections. Ukraine and its European allies reacted with dismay.
Zelensky called the decision "weak," while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned that easing sanctions on Russian diesel would directly fund Russia's continued war effort. "This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won't," she stated.
Trump, in turn, accused Zelensky of defying instructions not to strike Russian oil refineries and suggested Ukraine should find a new leader willing to negotiate a deal. Shortly after, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham reaffirmed his "complete solidarity" with Zelensky and said Britain would strengthen its sanctions on Russia. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga also backed his president, saying Zelensky "has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide."
As rescue workers continued to search for survivors beneath the ruins of the Pryluky apartment block, Zelensky urged the international community to hold Russia accountable — framing the birthday-timed assault not as coincidence, but as a deliberate act of cruelty designed to send a message.
