Heavy casualties in Ukraine after Russian strikes

PRYLUKY, Ukraine

A handout picture taken and released by Ukraine's National Police on Oct. 7, 2026 shows a bomb disposal expert neutralising an unexploded Russian missile near residential buildings in Kiev following a mass missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukraine's National Police / AFP)

At least 15 people were killed in Russian strikes across Ukraine on Oct. 7, the authorities said, including nine when a missile destroyed an apartment block in the north of the country.

Emergency services picked through the rubble of the destroyed five-story building in Pryluky, in the Chernigiv region, in a frantic search for survivors.

Police said that by late morning, the death toll had risen to nine. “Unfortunately, the bodies of three children were recovered,” they wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned the public on Oct. 6 night that Russia was planning “massive” strikes, particularly against the country’s energy infrastructure.

“The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively,” he said on Wednesday, calling it “one of the most vile strikes” in the nearly five-year conflict.

Two people were killed when missiles slammed into high-rise buildings in Dnipro and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, while two others lost their lives in Oleksandriya, he added.

In the capital, Kiev, strikes killed two people.

Kiev has come under increased attack in recent weeks as winter approaches, with air raid sirens wailing nearly constantly to warn of incoming Russian strikes.
Residents hunkered down in subway stations overnight, hauling duffel bags, sleeping mats and blankets, after air alerts sounded warning of attacks.

“We grabbed our things and came here, we live right next door,” Iryna Rybalchenko, who works in a bank, told AFP, sitting on the platform wrapped in a dark hoodie and surrounded by bags.

“The whole of Kiev is in a state of fear. We were stuck at work today and everyone, our group chats, our bosses, were messaging us to be careful.”

Russia launched at least 50 missiles and 130 drones overnight against several regions including Dnipropetrovsk, Kiev, Kharkiv, and Poltava, Ukraine’s air force said.

Zelensky said that although some were shot down, ballistic missiles were “the greatest challenge”, and new air defenses were “a vital necessity” to help Ukraine defend itself.

The two victims in Kiev died in a fire in the densely populated Darnytskyi neighborhood as a result of on Oct. 7’s attack, the city’s mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.

He had warned last week the capital should now be on a war footing as the enemy was “tearing Kiev apart” with strikes on bridges and energy infrastructure.

The renewed attacks had triggered scheduled power cuts on Oct. 6, which plunged parts of Kiev into darkness to ease the pressure on the battered grid.

A familiar rumbling sound of the generators, used to get through power cuts, filled the streets again, bringing back memories of the previous winter, when systematic Russian attacks regularly cut power and heating.

The air force said on Oct. 7 that it intercepted five ballistic missiles, as well as 39 cruise missiles and over 100 drones.

Ukraine has been struggling to down the new and fast-moving jet-powered drones, as well as the ballistic missiles that are harder to intercept.