A Russian missile and drone barrage kills at least 16 in Ukraine's Kyiv
region
[August 21, 2026]
By SAMYA KULLAB
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia pounded the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and
the surrounding region with scores of missiles and drones in a nighttime
aerial attack that lasted for hours and killed at least 16 people,
officials said Thursday.
Moscow's forces have in recent months intensified their ballistic
missile attacks on Kyiv, exploiting Ukraine's chronic shortage of
U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors, the sole weapon in its
arsenal able to shoot down the missiles.
Large-scale Russian missile strikes have become a regular occurrence
this summer. Just over two weeks ago, a Russian attack on Kyiv and its
surrounding region killed 17 people, and nine were killed in the city
two days before that. The United Nations said last week that Kyiv was
one of the hardest hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed
and 202 injured.
At the same time, Ukraine has shifted the war onto Russian soil through
long-range drone strikes on oil facilities that have caused fuel
shortages across the country. It has also unsettled the Russian public
by striking warehouses of Wildberries, the country’s biggest online
retailer.
Zelenskyy repeats his appeals for more air defense
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded for countries to send more
Patriot interceptors for defense, but international stockpiles are low
amid the Iran war and Kyiv's more than four-year fight against Russia's
all-out invasion.
Russia's overnight barrage also included cruise missiles and jet-powered
drones that further strain air defenses, Ukraine's air force said.
Explosions boomed across Kyiv in the dark, but the air force said hits
were recorded at 28 locations across the country. Emergency services
said 15 people were killed in the capital, with another death in the
wider Kyiv region. About 40 people were wounded, Zelenskyy said, as air
raid warnings lasted until after dawn.
More than 38,000 people, including over 2,000 children, sheltered in
Kyiv’s subway stations overnight, the system's operator said.
“It was a massive attack,” Zelenskyy said on social media, adding that
Russia “had been preparing (it) for a long time, combining different
types of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, aiming to cause
as much damage as possible to civilian infrastructure."
The Russian Defense Ministry said it struck a Kyiv industrial site
manufacturing components for Flamingo cruise missiles. Sites involved in
the production and storage of drones, an ammunition depot and a
logistics center were also hit, it said.
Russia is able to produce more than 200 cruise and ballistic missiles
per month, Ukraine’s intelligence agency told news outlet Ukrainska
Pravda in comments published Thursday. It has stockpiled more than 1,100
cruise missiles and about 130 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, as well as
hundreds of missiles of other types, the agency was quoted as saying.
It was not possible to independently verify the report, and Russian
officials do not routinely answer questions about the country's arsenal.
Ukraine says it struck more Russian oil facilities
Russia and Ukraine have battered each other with drones and missiles as
their armies struggle to gain the upper hand on the 1,250-kilometer
(780-mile) front line.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck an oil refinery in
Nizhnekamsk, in Russia’s Tatarstan region, starting a fire, and the
Tamanneftegaz oil terminal in Volna, in Russia’s Krasnodar region, where
there was also a blaze. Ukraine has hit both facilities in recent months
as part of its campaign to disrupt Russia’s vital oil industry.
Tatarstan leader Rustam Minnikhanov confirmed there had been a “massive
attack” in the region, state news agency Tass reported, citing his press
service. Many of the drones targeted Nizhnekamsk’s Zakamsk economic
area, disrupting production at industrial sites and damaging residential
buildings, Tass quoted him as saying.
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An elderly woman holds her car as she sits with her belongings in
front of heavily damaged residential buildings after an overnight
Russian attack, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026. (AP
Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 726 drones
overnight over a number of Russian regions, annexed Crimea and the
Black and Azov seas, in one of Ukraine's biggest aerial attacks of
the war.
Ukraine's neighbors are on alert
Russia’s relentless onslaught has spooked other European countries,
especially those bordering Ukraine, which fear spreading attacks
from Moscow.
Amid the attack on Kyiv, the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command
activated its military aviation operations, ground-based air defense
systems and radar reconnaissance. Polish and other NATO military
aircraft were deployed to monitor its airspace, Polish news agency
PAP reported.
Romania’s Defense Ministry said an unidentified drone crashed and
burned in an uninhabited area near the Ukrainian border. Two Spanish
F-18 jets, deployed on a policing mission in Romania, were scrambled
overnight to monitor a group of “air targets” near the border, the
ministry said.
In addition, two Romanian F-16 fighter jets were deployed to destroy
a naval drone seen near a major Black Sea gas project, Romania’s
acting Defense Minister Radu Miruta said.
Moldova’s Defense Ministry also said its airspace was breached by at
least one drone.
Russia “is increasingly testing the resolve of NATO and its
partners, violating the sovereignty of neighboring states and
deliberately expanding the risks posed by its war far beyond
Ukraine," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on social
media.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saw a broad
threat to the European Union. “An escalating campaign of threats is
underway, unsettling our citizens and seeking to divide our Union,”
she said on X.
Explosions shatter windows and screams fill the air
Russia's overnight strikes hit 12 locations across Kyiv’s Darnytskyi,
Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts, damaging 30 apartment
blocks, a school, a children’s hospital and a kindergarten,
Zelenskyy said.
Larysa Bondaruk, 60, sat on the ground, holding her cat, Chanel,
which had been rescued by firefighters. With tears in her eyes, she
said her neighbor’s grandson had been trapped by the rubble and
died. Her apartment was badly damaged.
“A rocket hit the roof. It was incredibly loud. Immediately, debris
and doors were blown out. There were columns of smoke, columns of
fire, screams, crying and despair,” she said. “Two people were
killed in our building, but the rescuers responded quickly and
professionally. I am grateful to them for that.”
In Solomianskyi district, the top two floors of a nine-story
residential building were destroyed and fires broke out on other
floors. People were also trapped in two residential buildings and a
school shelter.
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AP reporters Vasilisa Stepanenko and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Kirsten
Grieshaber in Berlin and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England,
contributed.
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