Editor’s note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Russian missiles destroyed homes, burned buildings, and killed civilians in Ukraine’s major cities in a mass overnight strike on April 16, with residential neighborhoods in Kyiv, Dnipro, and Odesa bearing the brunt of the attack.
Ukraine’s Air Force issued a ballistic missile alert at around 2:35 a.m. local time. Minutes later, Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported loud explosions as the missiles fell.
Less than an hour later, another round of ballistic missile explosions rocked the capital.
At least four people — including a child — were killed and 48 others injured during the overnight attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported. A 12-year-old boy is among the victims.
Twenty-six of the wounded victims were hospitalized, while the rest received on-site medical attention, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported.
The injured victims reportedly include children, four emergency medics, and two police officers.
But Russia’s attacks didn’t end when the sun rose: Early in the morning, as emergency crews were still clearing the wreckage of the overnight assault, air raid alarms sounded over Kyiv again and a Russian drone struck an apartment building.
The attacks caused damage to mutliple neighborhoods in Kyiv, Klitschko said. In the Podilskyi district, a non-residential building sustained a direct hit, while other places were struck by debris. These included a residential building, where a fire broke out, a three-story hotel, and the sixth floor of an apartment building.
Missile debris also partially destroyed a local home, where a mother and child were rescued from the rubble by first responders.
Shortly after 7 a.m. local time, Klitschko reported that a low-flying Russian drone crashed into an 18-story building in the Podilskyi district.
In the Obolonskyi district, an office building was damaged, along with cars parked nearby. A fire broke out at a two-story residential building in the Desnyanskyi district as a result of falling missile debris.
Missile fragments also landed near a residential building and a children’s playground in the Shevchenkivskyi district, but no fires broke out.
The aftermath of a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainain city of Dnipro overnight on April 16, 2026. (Oleksandr Hanzha / Telegram)
In Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, fires blazed in residential neighborhoods as a deadly Russian missile attack hit the city for the second time this week.
At least two civilians were killed and 27 others injured in the attacks, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Oleksandr Hanzha reported. Fourteen victims were hospitalized, with five in critical condition.
The attack — which Hanzha described as “a massive strike” — damaged apartments, offices, administrative buildings, a factory, and vehicles in Dnipro.
Explosions were also reported in Odesa shortly after a ballistic missile warning. Serhii Lysak, head of the Odesa City Military Administration, later reported that several waves of missile and drone strikes targeted the southern port city overnight.
Emergency crews at work at a building in Odesa damaged by Russian attacks overnight on April 16, 2026. (Oleh Kiper / Telegram)
Seven people in Odesa were killed and 11 others injured, Lysak said. The attacks damaged infrastructure facilities, a residential building, and a city park.
A drone strike against Odesa earlier in the day killed one man and injured six people.
Missile and drone alerts were also declared in regions across the country, including Kharkiv and Cherkasy. Information regarding casualties and damage is still being updated.
The overnight assault marks one of the deadliest Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians of 2026.
“Russia is once again confirming its true nature by launching nighttime strikes on Ukrainian cities, where ordinary people live,” Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the morning after the mass attack.
“These are attacks on civilians. And every time there is no accountability, such tragedies repeat themselves. … Russia will definitely be held accountable for every life taken, for every Ukrainian child, and for every shattered destiny.”
The latest mass attack on Ukraine comes shortly after President Volodymyr Zelensky sounded the alarm on the country’s critical shortage of air defense missiles, particularly U.S.-made Patriots.
“The situation is in such a deficit, it could not be any worse,” he said on April 14.
Russia regularly targets Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure in large-scale aerial attacks. Daily life has been severely disrupted for Ukrainians adapting to Russia’s escalating tactics, which involve swarms of kamikaze drones and missiles.
Civilian casualties also increased dramatically over the last year.