Russia hit Ukraine's central Kirovohrad region overnight with more than 360 drones in the largest attack on the region's territory since the war began, killing three people and wounding six, regional governor Andriy Raikovych said on Thursday.
The region, a relatively infrequent target of bombardment, endured more than 10 hours under attack, the State Emergency Service said. In Kropyvnytskyi, the regional capital, strikes hit business premises, logistics centers and warehouses, while transport infrastructure was attacked in the Kropyvnytskyi and Novoukrainskyi districts. Residential buildings and cars were also damaged, and fires broke out across the city as rescue crews worked through the night to bring the blazes under control.
Six people were wounded in the region and five of them were taken to hospital, officials said. "The enemy deliberately hit critical infrastructure, transport enterprises, logistics facilities and residential homes," Raikovych wrote.
The scale reached far beyond one region. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 580 drones overnight, along with two Kh-59 guided missiles, and that air defenses shot down or neutralized 536 of the drones, with impacts recorded at 31 locations and falling debris at 11 more.
The barrage came as the energy ceasefire President Donald Trump announced on October 11 lay in ruins. Ukraine says it held its fire on Russian energy targets for three days at Washington's request while Russia kept striking Ukrainian cities and power infrastructure, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on Thursday that Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities have resumed.
Ukraine's answer overnight was not defensive alone. Its forces set fire to the Ryazan oil refinery and launched a Neptune missile attack that destroyed four Russian Su-34 bombers at the Borisoglebsk airfield — a night of strikes that matched the scale of what Russia had sent at Kirovohrad.
For Kirovohrad, a region that has mostly watched the war from a distance, the night marked a turning point — the largest single attack on its territory since Russia's full-scale invasion began. It is also a measure of the war Moscow is now waging: hundreds of drones in a single night against a single region, aimed at the infrastructure that keeps daily life running. And it is a reminder that no part of Ukraine is out of range of that campaign — which is why the fight over air defenses, and over who will help supply them, now decides how the next night ends for every city and town still under threat.
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