Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Russia targeted Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in a mass missile and drone attack overnight on Sept. 28, launching heavy bombers that triggered air raid sirens even in regions far from the front line.
Five Russian Tu-95 bombers took off from Olenya airfield in Murmansk Oblast at approximately 1:45 a.m. local time, monitoring channels reported. At around 2:25 a.m., the Kyiv City Military Administration warned that Russia had launched MiG-31K bombers, prompting an aerial alert across the country.
Ukraine's Air Force then issued a warning at 3:52 a.m., saying Russia had likely launched Tu-95s from the Engels air base.
Throughout the night, swarms of Shahed-style drones threatened Kyiv and other cities.
A five-story building in the capital was partially destroyed by falling drone debris, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported.
Residential infrastructure has been damaged in multiple districts, Kyiv City Military Administration Head Tymyr Tkachenko said. At least two people have been injured, one of whom has been hospitalized.
In Kyiv Oblast, fires broke out in several homes and buildings in towns outside the capital during the "mass enemy strike," regional authorities said. Emergency services are still at work at the attack sites.
Multiple Ukrainian regions remain under threat from Russian ballistic and cruise missiles. Explosions have been reported in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Khmelnytskyi.
In Zaporizhzhia, the attack damaged a school and caused a fire in a high-rise building, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov reported. Four people in the city have been injured.
"The Russians are trying to attack the city's critical infrastructure," he said.
Russia has intensified the scale of its aerial attacks on Ukraine throughout the spring and summer of 2025. Heading into the colder months, officials have warned Ukrainians to brace for a new wave of Russian mass attacks targeting the country's energy infrastructure.
Earlier in September, Russia launched over 810 Shahed-type drones and 13 missiles in a record-breaking attack that struck the Cabinet of Ministers building in central Kyiv. Two nights later, during a mass attack that also targeted western Ukraine, Poland shot down multiple Russian drones that crossed the border and breached Polish airspace.
The incident marked the first time a NATO member destroyed Russian drones since the start of the full-scale invasion. It was followed by a string of Russian airspace violations and suspicious drone incursions in NATO airspace.
Amid these escalating provocations, world leaders convened in New York for the high-level U.N. General Assembly, where President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump.
In an abrupt tonal shift, Trump declared after the meeting that Ukraine "is in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form" — with European support.
Trump later lobbed criticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin for the ongoing attacks on Ukraine.
"I'm very dissatisfied with what Russia is doing and what President Putin is doing," Trump told reporters on Sept. 25. "I haven't liked it at all. He's killing people for no reason whatsoever."
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