A major Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine kills at least 6
people, officials say
[October 22, 2025]
By SUSIE BLANN
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A large-scale Russian drone and missile attack
across Ukraine killed at least six people, including a woman and her two
young daughters, officials said Wednesday, as U.S.-led efforts to end
the war floundered and Ukraine’s president appealed for more military
help.
Repeated waves of missiles and drones throughout the night shook at
least eight Ukrainian cities, including a village in the Kyiv region
where a strike set fire to a house in which the mother and her 6-month
and 12-year-old daughters were staying, regional head Mykola Kalashnyk
said.
At least 18 people were injured in Kyiv alone, authorities said.
The barrage, which began at night and extended into Wednesday morning,
also targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and caused rolling
blackouts, officials said. Russia has been trying to cripple the
country's power grid before the bitter winter sets in.
U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to end the war that started with
Russia's all-out invasion of its neighbor more than three years ago have
failed to gain traction. Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with
Russian President Vladimir Putin's refusal to budge from his conditions
for a settlement after Ukraine offered a ceasefire and direct peace
talks.
Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift meeting with Putin was on hold
because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.”
Zelenskyy urged the European Union, the United States and the Group of
Seven industrialized nations to heap more pressure on Russia and force
it to the negotiating table.
Pressure can be applied on Moscow “only through sanctions, long-range
(missile) capabilities, and coordinated diplomacy among all our
partners,” he said.
Zelenskyy credited Trump's remarks that he was considering supplying
Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for Putin's willingness to meet.
Zelenskyy was set to visit Stockholm on Wednesday, where he's expected
to meet with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at the start of what
the Ukrainian leader has said will be a week of intense diplomacy.
More international economic sanctions on Russia are likely to be
discussed at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, while on Friday, a
meeting of the Coalition of the Willing — a group of 35 countries who
support Ukraine — is due to take place in London.
[to top of second column]
|
Bohdan Romaniv, 80, sweeps debris outside an apartment building that
Russian attacks damaged, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Kyiv, Ukraine.
(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Also Wednesday, Trump is expected to hold talks at the White House
with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. The military alliance has
been coordinating deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, many of them
purchased from the United States by Canada and European countries.
In Kyiv, residents reeled from the drone and missile bombardment.
“We heard a loud explosion and then the glass started to shatter,
and then everything was caught up in a burst of fire, the embers
were everywhere,” Biriukova Olena, a 58-year-old resident of a city
apartment building told The Associated Press. “It was very scary for
kids, I never thought that this could happen in our neighborhood.”
The attack caused damage in the cities of Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, as
well as Odesa, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Poltava,
Vinnytsia, and the wider regions of Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Sumy,
Zelenskyy said.
Two more people were found dead in the Dnipro district of the
Ukrainian capital, where emergency services rescued 10 people after
a fire caused by drone debris hit the sixth floor of a 16-story
residential building, local authorities said.
The attack also blew out windows of a medical facility and debris
was found at another residential building, Kyiv mayor Vitali
Klitschko reported on his Telegram channel.
In the Darnytskyi district of the capital, emergency services were
responding after drone debris hit a 17-story residential building
causing a fire on five floors. Fifteen people had to be rescued,
including two children.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s army general staff said the country’s forces
struck a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk region Tuesday night
using British-made air-launched Storm Shadow missiles. The plant is
an important part of the Russian military and industrial complex
producing gunpowder, explosives, missile fuel and ammunition, it
said.
___
AP writers Hanna Arhirova, Illia Novikov, Samya Kullab, Andrea Rosa
and Yehor Konovalov in Kyiv contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
