Russia hit Ukraine with drones and missiles in the wee hours of Friday, killing at least three and injuring 16, said Ukrainian authorities. An international news agency said Russia’s Defence Ministry has confirmed it used the new Oreshnik ballistic missile in the latest strike on Ukraine.
Critical infrastructure was hit in the western city of Lviv with the missile, said Mayor Andriy Sadoviy, with Ukraine Air Force’s Western Command saying the missile travelled at a speed of 13,000 kilometres per hour. CCTV footage shared by Russian state-owned outlets on Friday also showed a bright projectile landing in the Lviv region, located close to the Polish border.
Sadovoy said a piece of critical infrastructure had been hit. “A missile struck an underground gas facility in the city of Stryi, about 60 km from Lviv,” he stated.
Meanwhile, several districts in Kyiv were also hit in the attack, said Kyiv City Military Administration head, Tymur Tkachenko, with Kyiv’s Mayor, Vitali Klitschko, saying running water and electricity were disrupted in parts of the capital as a result of the attack.
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In Ukraine’s Desnyanskyi district, a drone crashed onto the roof of a multi-storey building. At another address in the same district, the first two floors of a residential building were damaged as a result of the attack. In the Dnipro district, parts of a drone damaged a multi-storey building and a fire broke out.
The attack took place just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alerted the nation about Russia’s intentions of a large-scale offensive, especially when the weather is frigid, making rescue difficult.
Earlier too, in November 2024, Russia had fired an Oreshnik missile at a weapons plant in Dnipro, with Moscow describing it as a successful “combat test”. By late 2025, similar missiles had been delivered to Russia’s close ally, Belarus.
Meanwhile, in retaliatory strikes, Ukrainian drones caused a blackout in western Russia on Thursday.
Even while both sides remain engaged in peace negotiations, relations between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin turned icy when the former said he would back the EU’s latest proposal for strong security guarantees for Ukraine in any post-war arrangement.
Trump has also backed the deployment of a Western peacekeeping force in Ukraine, which Russia says would be considered as legitimate military targets if installed without Russian consent.
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