Russian drone strikes hit Kyiv and Odesa, wounding civilians overnight

Kyiv,UPDATED: Sep 2, 2026 16:26 IST

Russian aerial attacks hit apartment buildings in Ukraine's Kyiv and Odesa regions overnight and on Wednesday morning, wounding at least eight civilians, local officials said. The Ukrainian air force said the two regions bore the brunt of the latest strikes.

The attacks came amid an intensifying air war as the conflict entered its fifth year after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. While the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine remains largely deadlocked, US efforts to negotiate a peace settlement have yet to produce a path to peace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy exchanged threats late on Tuesday over their next steps. Zelenskyy warned foreign airlines that the skies over Russia are not safe for flights because of Ukrainian long-range drone attacks, saying that "Russian airspace will effectively be closing". He said the military pressure was aimed at compelling Russia to accept peace negotiations.

Putin accused Zelenskyy of "state terrorism" and said: "We don't negotiate with terrorists." Speaking at a late-night news conference on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, Putin also addressed reports that the Ukrainian military had used British-made drones to strike targets inside Russia. Asked whether Russia would strike British military facilities if the UK government continued to provide Ukraine with weaponry, Putin declined to rule it out, saying with a small smile that it was "a military secret".

China and North Korea have meanwhile provided military support for Russia, as Iran did in previous years. The comments by the Russian and Ukrainian leaders came as European officials weighed their response to what they say is Moscow's latest campaign of sabotage and disruption across the continent aimed at weakening support for Ukraine. Germany on Tuesday blamed Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport last month using a drone carrying explosives.

According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia fired 174 attack drones overnight, about half of them jet-powered drones that are harder to stop and are being increasingly deployed by Moscow, along with two ballistic missiles and two air-launched missiles. In Odesa, officials said a 24-storey residential building was damaged, apartments on several floors were destroyed and eight people, including a child, were wounded. Office buildings and two educational facilities were also damaged, Serhii Lysak, head of the Odesa city military administration, said. The barrage also caused a power cut that halted electric public transport, the city council said.

In the Kyiv region, a man and a woman were wounded by shrapnel in morning attacks, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration. It was the seventh straight day that Kyiv came under attack, though the latest barrage was not as heavy as in previous days. Officials said the assault started a fire at a warehouse. The Kyiv city military administration said a fire also broke out at an educational facility and a medical practice was damaged.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defences destroyed 130 Ukrainian drones overnight over 11 Russian regions, as well as the annexed Crimean peninsula and the Black Sea. In Russia's Belgorod border region, Ukrainian drone attacks killed two people and wounded 16 others, acting Governor Alexander Shuvayev said. He said Ukrainian forces hit the region 140 times over 24 hours. Ukraine's domestically developed long-range drones have repeatedly targeted Russia's oil sector in an effort to hurt the economy, and the warehouses of online retailers, to make the Russian public feel the effects of the war.

Western analysts and officials say the Russian army's push deeper into Ukraine has lost momentum. The Institute for the Study of War said late on Tuesday that Russian advances last August were "a fraction" of Moscow's gains during the same month last year, and that Russia's spring-summer offensive had failed to break Ukraine's front-line defences. It said Russian gains remained slow and limited, as fresh aerial attacks and drone strikes underscored the continuing intensity of the war.

With PTI Inputs

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