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Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight on Nov. 17.
Multiple loud explosions were reported in the capital Kyiv between 6:30 and 7:15 a.m. local time, according to a Kyiv Independent journalist on the ground. Further explosions were also heard in the cities of Kropyvnytskyi, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, as well as in Khmelnytskyi Oblast.
Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said that as a result of falling drone debris, an apartment on the fourth floor of a five-story residential building caught fire in the Pechersk neighborhood of the city. One person was hospitalized as a result of the attack, while one other person received medical treatment on-site.
In addition to the attack on Kyiv, at least one person was killed and six injured, including two children, in the city of Mykolaiv amid Russia’s mass drone and missile attack, regional governor Vitalii Kim reported.
Russia's latest barrage of missile strikes marks the first mass missile attack on Kyiv in over 2 months, with Russia instead utilizing more frequent drone attacks in recent months to attack the capital.
In response to the mass attack, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces scrambled fighter jets to protect the country's own airspace. "Ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness," the Operational Command added.
Ukraine's Air Force issued the air raid alerts across all regions the country around 6 a.m. local time, warning of the attack.
Multiple cruise, ballistic, and hypersonic missiles were reportedly launched from the Black Sea, as well as Russia's Astrakhan Oblast and Krasnodar Krai, toward multiple regions. Russian attack drones are also present within multiple cities across the country, including Kyiv.
Ukraine's Air Force reported earlier in the night that Tu-95 strategic bombers took off from the Russian airfields of Olenya in Murmansk Oblast. Later in the night, the War Monitor Telegram channel reported that a total of 17 Tu-95 strategic bombers were in flight, with seven taking off at the Engels airbase in Saratov Oblast.
In recent months, Russia has primarily focused on large-scale drone attacks to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses in cities across the country. The Ukrainian Air Force previously said that Russia launched at least 4,300 Shahed-type attack drones and similar UAVs imitating Shaheds against Ukraine between August and October 2024.
While missile attacks are a common occurrence in Ukraine's eastern oblasts, most Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, have largely been spared from large-scale Russian missile attacks on infrastructure in recent months — with the last large-scale missile attack occurring in late August.
Dmytro Basmat
