Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv kills 2, injures 8 after day of drone strikes

Two people were killed and 8 others were injured as Russian ballistic missile explosions rocked Kyiv overnight on Sept. 24.

At the same time missiles were battering the capital, President Volodymyr Zelensky was meeting with members of the U.S. Congress, discussing the recently passed Lindsey Graham law while attending the U.N. General Assembly.

"Right now, the United States has an opportunity to respond strongly," Zelensky wrote on X. "We need ballistic missile interceptors to protect lives. Sanctions against Russia and those helping it make money must be implemented."

Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a lawmaker from the opposition Holos party, told the Kyiv Independent he believed the timing of the attack was deliberate.

"Russia is clearly trying to influence the positions of the U.S. and Ukraine and push us to accept its terms, which would effectively amount to capitulation. It is also trying to pressure the U.S. ahead of the elections so that Washington puts even more pressure on us," Yurchyshyn said.

He argued that the appropriate response would be for the U.S. and its partners to provide greater support to Ukraine and tighten sanctions against Russia.

Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament's Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation Committee, told the Kyiv Independent that Russia routinely uses provocations and strikes to test how the U.S. and its allies will respond.

Merezhko said Moscow may see Trump as increasingly focused on Iran and the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, creating what he described as an opportunity for Putin to escalate without facing a strong response from Washington.

"Russia acts in a very primitive way. They carry out a provocation, for example, and watch the reaction. If there is no reaction, they intensify their attacks," Merezhko said.

"They see that there is no reaction from Trump. Putin believes that Trump is busy now and has no time for Ukraine... Putin is using this," he added.

Russia launched 282 attack drones of various types overnight, including jet-powered drones, as well as Zircon anti-ship missiles and Iskander-M, S-400, and KN-23 ballistic missiles, according to the Air Force.  

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 227 aerial targets, including 219 drones, four Zircon missiles, three ballistic missiles, and one Banderol munition. Strikes were recorded at 13 locations, while debris from downed targets fell at 10 locations.

"We had three waves of ballistic attacks. Today in Kyiv, 60% of the ballistic missiles were shot down," Zelensky told reporters at a press conference in New York on Sept. 24. "It is important. We would like more to be shot down, but today it was 60%, not 10% and not zero."

Zelensky added that there had been attacks earlier this year in which Ukraine intercepted none of the incoming ballistic missiles, attributing this to shortages of interceptor missiles.

"Russia has shifted to effectively round-the-clock attacks on Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa and other major Ukrainian cities," Ukraine's ambassador to the U.K. and former commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.

"They are using everything they can. Old and new Shaheds are effectively going straight from the production line to Ukraine, while ballistic missiles are being stockpiled for nights like tonight," he said.

"For years, Russia has continued to receive imported components that allow it not only to continue, but also to increase its weapons production," Zaluzhnyi added. "The world must finally stop this. Otherwise, tomorrow it may fly not only at Ukraine."

Loud explosions were first heard in the city center of Ukraine's capital at around 1:00 a.m. local time, Editor-in-Chief Olga Rudenko said.

Ukraine's Air Force also warned that a ballistic missile was headed toward Kyiv after an air raid alert had been declared in Kyiv at 12:59 a.m.

"I got woken up by the sound of an explosion, slept through the air raid alert. When I checked my phone, I saw alerts for incoming missiles and went to my hallway as a series of explosions blasted out, one of them set off car alarms near my flat," War Editor Chris York said.

Then another ballistic missile was headed toward Ukraine's capital at 1:27 a.m., the Air Force said.

"It was quiet for about 30 minutes until another wave of ballistic missiles came in, I counted eight explosions," York said.

A third wave of ballistic missile explosions rocked the city again at around 1:52 a.m. local time, he added.

Updates from authorities

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that paramedics were headed to sites in the city's Solomyanskyi, Svyatoshynskyi, and Podilskyi districts as Russian missiles continued to target the city.

In the Dniprovskyi district, debris fell into a residential building courtyard, where there could be people trapped under rubble, he said. Debris also fell onto an administrative building in the district.

"In the Podilskyi district, debris fell on a parking lot near a medical facility. Several cars caught fire. Emergency services are en route," Klitschko said.

Kyiv City Maternity Hospital No. 2 was partially damaged in the attack, with windows and doors on the first through fifth floors damaged, as well as windows in the laundry and boiler room, Kyiv's Health Department said. No patients or medical staff were injured, as they were sheltering during the attack.

At 2:05 a.m., during the height of the attack, a baby boy was born in the hospital's shelter, where medical staff continued providing care.

"Even on such a terrible night, life goes on," Tetiana Mostepan, head of Kyiv's Health Department, said. "Our medical staff remain with patients under any circumstances and do everything possible to ensure that care is provided on time."

Although there were no casualties in the maternity hospital, one person was killed in a nearby parking lot, Klitschko said, adding that a medical diagnostic center was also damaged.

The attack also destroyed the production facility of Ukrainian jewellery business Dukachi, the company told the Kyiv Independent.

"When we arrived, we saw two groups of firefighters and realized that our premises were burning," co-founders Ana and Liza Knyzhenko said. "When we ran up, we saw a wall of fire. We understood that this was the end, that it was hell, and that nothing had survived."

The company said the building was effectively destroyed, with only some walls and partitions remaining. Equipment, furniture, and stock inside were burned, leaving the facility unusable and forcing the business to rebuild its production from scratch.

Dukachi said the loss was particularly difficult for a small business that had spent eight years building up the production facility. "We don't have programs or resources that would allow us to recover quickly. Everything will have to be rebuilt at our own expense, and that is very expensive and will take a long time," the co-founders said.

Russia regularly strikes civilian infrastructure and cities across Ukraine in fatal missile and drone attacks.

The prior day, on Sept. 23,  a series of deadly Russian drone strikes on Kyiv killed two people and injured at least 43 others during the morning.

Railway infrastructure, residential buildings, and a historic market were damaged in the Russian attack.

On Sept. 22, Russian jet-powered drones struck Kyiv, injuring at least eight people and hitting sites across several districts of the capital, authorities said.