Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine kills at least 4 people and
wounds 70
[September 29, 2025]
By DEREK GATOPOULOS, ILLIA NOVIKOV and ELISE MORTON
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a barrage of drones and missiles
on Ukraine overnight into Sunday, killing at least four people, with
Kyiv suffering the heaviest assault. It was the first major bombardment
since an air attack on Ukraine's capital left at least 21 people dead
last month.
Separately, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. was considering
selling Ukraine Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Administration, confirmed
Sunday's casualties via Telegram and said that 10 others were wounded in
the attack, which targeted civilian areas across the city. A 12-year-old
girl was among the dead. Thick black smoke could be seen rising from a
blast near the city center.
“The Russians have restarted the child death counter,” Tkachenko wrote
on Telegram.
Russia fired a total of 595 exploding drones and decoys and 48 missiles,
Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. Of those, air defenses shot down or
jammed 566 drones and 45 missiles.
Besides Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the
bombardment targeted the regions of Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy,
Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, and Odesa. Zelenskyy wrote on X that at least 40
people were wounded across the country. Later, Ukraine’s Interior
Ministry stated the number of the wounded rose to 70, with more than 100
civilian objects damaged.
Zaporizhzhia's regional head, Ivan Fedorov, said that three children
were among the 27 wounded in the region, adding that more than two dozen
buildings were damaged in the capital, which that bears the same name.
“This vile attack came virtually (at) the close of U.N. General Assembly
week, and this is exactly how Russia declares its true position. Moscow
wants to keep fighting and killing, and it deserves the toughest
pressure from the world,” Zelenskyy wrote.
U.S. considering selling Ukraine Tomahawks
Speaking to Fox News in an interview taped Friday, Vance said the U.S.
administration was reviewing a request by the Ukrainian president for
Tomahawk cruise missiles. Tomahawks have a range of around 1,000 miles
(1,600 kilometers), which would put Moscow within the range of Ukraine's
forces.
“It’s something that the president is going to make the final
determination on. I know that we’re reviewing that request. We’re also
reviewing a number of other requests,” Vance said.
Kyiv residents shaken
The strikes that began overnight and continued after dawn on Sunday also
targeted residential buildings, civilian infrastructure, a medical
facility and a kindergarten, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko,
who also said that damage was reported at more than 20 locations across
the capital.
At Kyiv’s central train station, passengers arrived to the crackle of
anti-aircraft gunfire and the low buzz of attack drones. Mostly women,
they waited quietly in a platform underpass until the air raid alert
ended. Parents checked the news on their phones while children played
online games.
“The sky has turned black again,” said one woman at the station, who
gave only her first name, Erika. “It’s happening a lot.”
Ilona Kovalenko, a 38-year-old resident of a five-story building struck
in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district, told The Associated Press that she woke
up because of the explosion, which shattered windows.
“A neighbor kept knocking on our door. She was completely covered in
blood and shouting, ‘help, save my daughter,’" said Kovalenko, who fled
the building with her grandmother after the strike.
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Rescuers work at the site of an apartment buildings damaged during a
Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem
Lukatsky)
Oleksandra, the neighbor’s daughter, was the 12-year-old killed in
the attack.
“Sadly, she died on the spot,” Kovalenko said. “We are in shock, to
be honest.”
Another multistory residential building was heavily damaged by the
attack. Emergency services personnel used power saws to clear the
debris. Piles of glass littered nearby sidewalks as building
residents, some looking shaken, sat on benches.
“There are no warehouses or plants here. We were sure that nothing
would happen, but it hit us here,” Volodymyr, a retired Kyiv
resident who only gave his first name, told the AP at the site of a
missile strike.
The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed that Russia’s military only
strikes military targets.
Russian officials didn't immediately comment on the latest attacks.
For some Kyiv residents, this wasn't the first time they had come
under Russian attack. Mark Sergeev, a pastor who had already fled
Russia-occupied Melitopol, found himself under attack again in Kyiv.
He was sleeping on the second floor with his wife when the blast
struck, with his children on the floor above.
“There was a blast, and a wardrobe fell on me and I was covered with
glass. My wife was shouting: ‘Mark, where are the kids?’ I felt like
this was like a death sentence,” Sergeev said. He called out to his
older son Toper, who responded that he was alive, before pulling his
younger child from the debris.
The pastor, who previously testified before U.S. Congress about
Christian persecution in Russian-occupied territories, said that the
attack brought back painful memories. “I am a pastor from Melitopol.
We had a large Protestant church and a house that I built with my
own hands, and the Russian FSB took it away and nationalized it,” he
said, describing how Russian forces had forced his family to lie on
the ground at gunpoint in 2022.
“And so, we lost our second home again,” Sergeev said.
Polish military responses triggered
The assault also triggered military responses in neighboring Poland,
where fighter jets were deployed early Sunday as Russia struck
targets in western Ukraine, according to the Polish armed forces.
Polish military officials characterized these defensive measures as
“preventive.”
International concerns have mounted recently that the fighting could
spread beyond Ukraine’s borders as European countries rebuked Russia
for what they said were provocations. The incidents have included
Russian drones landing on Polish soil and Russian fighter aircraft
entering Estonian airspace.
Russia denied that its planes entered Estonian airspace and said
that none of its drones targeted Poland.
The latest bombardment follows Zelenskyy's announcement Saturday of
what he called a “mega deal” for weapons purchases from the United
States. The $90 billion package includes both the major arms
agreement and a separate “drone deal” for Ukrainian-made drones that
the U.S. will purchase directly.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its air defenses shot
down 41 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday.
___
Elise Morton reported from London.
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