Key developments:
Russia attacked Kyiv overnight on Oct. 26-27, launching multiple waves of ballistic missiles at the capital. One person was killed and 15 injured. The attacks targeted Kyiv’s Southern Bridge, a university campus, an administrative building, and medical centers. Damage to metro infrastructure has caused temporary disruptions to public transportation in the city.
Russian ballistic missiles targeted Kyiv in a deadly attack overnight on Oct. 26-27, striking a university campus, a major bridge, an administrative building, and medical facilities.
Kyiv, a city of three million people, has been relentlessly assaulted by Russian ballistic missiles in recent months as Moscow exploits Ukraine’s air defense shortage. While its battlefield offensive has slowed, Russia has chosen a strategy of mass aerial strikes against vulnerable civilians.
At least one person was killed, and 15 people have been injured in the latest Russian attack, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (DSNS) said. Those injured in the attack include a paramedic, a medical technician, and a 20-year-old university student.
The mayor later reported a strike on the city’s Southern Bridge over the Dnipro River, one of Kyiv’s major traffic arteries. The bridge connects the city’s eastern and western sides and is crucial for the daily commutes of hundreds of thousands of residents.
The bridge and metro infrastructure were damaged overnight, Klitschko said. Train service on the bridge has been temporarily suspended.
Ihor, who lives on the east bank of the Dnipro River but works on the west bank, said his commute now takes around two hours, including about half an hour spent walking across the Southern Bridge.
“We’ll have to walk like this every morning now. Taking a detour would take too long,” Ihor, who declined to give his surname, told the Kyiv Independent.
Commuters walk over Kyiv’s Southern Bridge after it was damaged and closed to traffic after a mass Russian missile attack on Oct. 27, 2026, Kyiv, Ukraine (Slava Ratynskyi/The Kyiv Independent)
Iryna was also crossing the bridge while it remained closed to traffic, but she was using an electric scooter to get across. Following the overnight attack on Oct. 27, this was her first time commuting to work this way.
“This is an alternative means of transport, but I don’t know how long the journey will take,” Iryna, who also declined to give a surname, said, expressing hope that the bridge would be repaired soon.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a university campus in the city was struck by Russia alongside Kyiv’s well-known Kyoto park and residential buildings.
Education minister Andriy Butenko later said that the Russian attack damaged buildings and dormitories of the State University of Trade and Economics. He said there were no deaths among university students or employees.
“This is once again a terrorist country attacking educational institutions. A university, a scientific institution, a college, a school, or a kindergarten – the enemy directs its missiles at children, teachers, and scientists without any pity or humanity. There is no excuse for Moscow’s cynical actions,” Butenko added.
Footage of the aftermath of a Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv on Oct. 26-27, 2026. (Volodymyr Zelensky / Telegram)
Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground first reported that loud explosions rocked the city in the Podilskyi and Obolonskyi districts at around 9:45 p.m. local time.
Just minutes earlier, Ukraine’s Air Force warned that ballistic missiles and other missiles were headed toward Kyiv.
Explosions were heard near a metro station in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district, where a car was damaged, Klitschko reported.
Two medical facilities in the Dniprovskyi district were also damaged in the attack, Klitschko said. At one of the two sites that came under fire, blast waves shattered windows in the intensive care unit. Windows were also shattered at the other site.
A three-story commercial building was also “partially destroyed” in the district where one person was found dead, the State Emergency Service (DSNS) added.
A school building in the district was also damaged in the attack, the Kyiv City Military Administration wrote.
“Buildings of a university campus, dormitories, and nearby residential buildings were damaged” in the Desnyanskyi district, DSNS said.
An ambulance damaged in a Russian ballistic missile attack against Kyiv on the night of Oct. 26-27, 2026. (State Emergency Service/Telegram)
Hours later, another wave of ballistic missiles attacked the city in the middle of the night.
Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported a new round of explosions at around 3:30 a.m. local time. At least seven explosions rocked the city in the space of three minutes. The blasts came minutes after Ukraine’s Air Force warned that Russian ballistic missiles were bound for the capital.
Another blast shook Kyiv some 15 minutes later, without warning.
The second wave of missiles hit an administrative building in the Podilskyi district, Klitschko said. Non-residential buildings were also targeted in two other unspecified locations.
Some metro stations elsewhere in the city were damaged during the earlier attack, but were repaired by emergency workers overnight, the mayor reported.
Russia has attacked the Southern Bridge and other key bridges multiple times in October in an attempt to disrupt logistics and daily life in Kyiv.
Earlier in the night, Zelensky condemned Russia’s attack on Kyiv and renewed calls for allies to provide Ukraine with air defense.
“Russian ballistic missiles struck the grounds of a university in Kyiv and the area around it — effectively the campus, Kyoto Park, the area near a metro station, and residential buildings,” he said in a post to X.
“(I)t is precisely under such circumstances, when the threat is constant, when strikes can come at any moment and target cities and villages directly, that artificial delays in providing air defense to Ukraine help terror,” Zelensky added.
Russia regularly targets civilian infrastructure in cities across Ukraine as it continues to wage its war.
Ballistic missiles targeted Kyiv in a fatal Russian attack on the night of Oct. 13-14, killing five people and injuring another 25.
At least one person was killed, and 24 were injured in another Russian ballistic missile attack overnight on Oct. 22, during which cluster munitions also targeted the city.