Russia strikes Kyiv with hypersonic Oreshnik missile for third time

Russia used its hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile for a third time in Ukraine during a large attack on Kyiv and its surrounding region that killed at least four people and injured about 100.

Russia struck the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region with the missile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He described a heavy assault that also hit a water supply facility, burned down a market and damaged dozens of residential buildings and several schools.

“They are genuinely deranged,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

On Sunday, Zelenskyy wrote on X that about 100 people had been injured across the country and four had died. He said the attack hit Kyiv the hardest.

Russia’s defence ministry confirmed the use of the Oreshnik, which can carry nuclear or conventional warheads. It was the third time the weapon has been used in the conflict.

Quoted by local news agencies, the ministry said it had carried out attacks on Ukrainian military command facilities, airbases and other military enterprises using Oreshnik, Iskander, Kinzhal and Zircon missiles. It said the attack was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on civilian facilities on Russian territory.

Zelenskyy described a heavy attack on Kyiv that involved 600 drones and 90 missiles of various kinds, 36 of them ballistic.

“Unfortunately, not all of the ballistic missiles were intercepted – the largest number of hits was in Kyiv. Kyiv was the primary target of this Russian attack,” he wrote on X.

“It is important that this does not pass without consequences for Russia.”

Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, said two people had been killed in the capital and 56 wounded. The head of the surrounding Kyiv region said two people had also been killed there and nine wounded, based on preliminary estimates.

Klitschko said damage had been recorded in every district of Kyiv. An attack on a school started a fire, and another on a business centre left people trapped in a shelter.

Svitlana Onofryichuk, a Kyiv resident who had worked for 22 years in the market that was hit, told the Associated Press: “It was a terrible night and there has never been anything like it in the entire war.”

“I am very sorry that I have to say goodbye to Kyiv now, I am not staying there any more, there is no possibility,” she added. “My job is gone, everything is gone, everything has burned down.”

Yevhen Zosin, 74, who witnessed the attack in Kyiv, told AP that when he heard the explosion he rushed to grab his dog.

“Then there was another explosion and she and I were thrown back like a pin by the shock wave. We both survived, she and I. My apartment was blown to pieces,” he said.

Ukraine’s National Art Museum was also damaged in the blast, the culture ministry said, posting images of damaged ceilings, broken windows, shattered glass and debris scattered across floors and staircases. Staff were inspecting the building to assess the damage. The Kyiv Independent reported that the collection was not damaged.

“Russia is systematically attacking civilian infrastructure and cultural institutions. Each such strike is an attempt to intimidate and destroy our identity,” Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna wrote on Instagram.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry was damaged for the first time since the second world war, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said. The historic building had been lightly damaged by nearby explosions.

Russian strikes had “targeted a historic area,” Sybiha added. “Yet another proof we are dealing with hordes of barbarians, not the heirs of civilisation.”

Ukraine’s government headquarters were also damaged, with windows blown out, but no one was injured, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.

The barrage on Kyiv came after President Vladimir Putin vowed revenge on Ukraine. He accused Ukrainian forces of a deadly drone attack on a student dormitory in Luhansk, a Russian-controlled region in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine denied the accusations and said it had struck an elite drone command unit in the area.

The Russian government said the attack in Starobilsk had killed 21 people and wounded 42 others. Putin said he had ordered his military to prepare options to retaliate.

At a UN security council emergency meeting called by Russia, Ukraine’s ambassador rejected Russia’s accusations of war crimes, calling them a “pure propaganda show.”

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the attacks, including the use of the Oreshnik missile, which he said signalled “the dead end of Russia’s war of aggression.” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the use of that weapon a “reckless escalation.”

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: “Russia hit a dead end on the battlefield, so it terrorises Ukraine with deliberate strikes on city centres. These are abhorrent acts of terror meant to kill as many civilians as possible.”

She described the use of the Oreshnik as a “political scare tactic and reckless nuclear brinkmanship,” adding that EU foreign ministers would discuss next week “how to dial up the international pressure on Russia.”

Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said she was “deeply appalled” by Russia’s attack on Kyiv. “These attacks only reinforce what is at stake: Ukraine’s freedom, Europe’s security, our shared values,” she wrote on X.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Moscow’s escalating assault on Ukrainian civilians betrays its weakness.”

Hours before the latest attacks, Zelenskyy wrote on social media that US and European partners had warned Ukraine that Russia was preparing a strike with the Oreshnik missile.

Russia first used the Oreshnik on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024, then a second time in January in the western Lviv region.

Putin has claimed that the Oreshnik is impossible to intercept, as it travels at 10 times the speed of sound, and that its destructive power rivals that of a nuclear weapon even when armed with a conventional warhead. Ukraine has no air defence systems capable of intercepting the missile.