Zelenskyy Reports 16 Ballistic Missiles and 280 Drones in Overnight Strike on Kyiv

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Russia launched 16 ballistic missiles and more than 280 drones at Ukraine during the night of October 26 and 27. The barrage struck the capital and ten other regions, with the Pivdennyi Bridge in Kyiv among the specific targets.

Zelenskyy described the operation as a serious escalation aimed at Ukrainian logistics. He noted that strikes were recorded in the Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, Chernihiv, Sumy, Donetsk, Kherson, and Chernivtsi regions. According to the president, Russia primarily targeted the energy sector, logistics networks, and urban infrastructure in almost every case.

The overnight attack followed an earlier strike on the evening of October 26 that hit a university campus and its surroundings. That incident left 12 people injured, including five students and university staff. Zelenskyy stated that Russian forces fired the ballistic missiles again while emergency crews were still addressing the aftermath of the first strike.

The assault utilized Iskander-M and S-400 ballistic missiles alongside 280 Shahed drones. Of the Shaheds, 69 were jet-powered. The mix also included Gerbera attack drones and Parodiya decoy UAVs. Kyiv served as the main target for this combined aerial attack.

Ukrainian air defense forces reported destroying or jamming 257 Russian aerial assets by 09:00 on October 27. These figures included two Iskander-M or S-400 ballistic missiles and 255 drones. Among the intercepted drones, 56 were jet-powered Shaheds.

Zelenskyy connected the scale of the damage to delays in Western air defense supplies. He stated that "the artificial and prolonged delays in the delivery of interceptor packages for Patriot and NASAMS systems, which unfortunately have occurred recently, are directly helping Russia achieve the objectives of its terrorist campaign."

The president had raised the supply issue on October 26, when he announced that Kyiv had waited nearly a month for US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to sign off on the missiles. Zelenskyy instructed his team to raise the matter with the US side again.