Russian missile and drone barrage hits Kyiv homes, bridge and energy grid

Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions overnight into Saturday, 7 November, damaging housing, energy infrastructure and the capital's Northern Bridge, Ukrainian officials said. The Kyiv Independent reported at least six people injured within Kyiv city, including a 14-year-old girl, citing the authorities; two of the injured were hospitalised. Separately, one person was killed by strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to Ukrainian officials cited by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired 36 ballistic missiles and 172 attack drones in the wider overnight barrage, with all 36 missiles aimed at Kyiv and the surrounding region. He said the strikes hit substations that connect the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants to the capital and central Ukraine's grid.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported damage to a five-storey residential building in the city's Solomianskyi district and shattered windows at another five-storey block elsewhere in the capital. A kindergarten in the Solomianskyi district was also damaged, the Kyiv City Military Administration said. A local resident told the Kyiv Independent the building had stood near earlier strikes but this one hit it directly. Emergency crews were sent to each site, the mayor said.

The Northern Bridge over the Dnipro River was damaged and closed to traffic in both directions, with its road surface, trolleybus power line and electrical cabling affected, Klitschko said, adding that repair crews had begun work. Russia's defence ministry said it had targeted the bridge because it was used to move weapons and military equipment for Ukraine's armed forces, a justification Moscow has used before for strikes on civilian infrastructure.

Kyiv Post reported nine people wounded, including a child, across the capital and neighbouring districts in the wider barrage; that regional figure should not be added to the six injured reported within Kyiv city itself. Zelensky said transmission substations were also damaged in six other regions, including Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported more than a dozen people injured across Ukraine overall, including at least two children.

Kyiv Independent reporters said missiles struck the city in several waves, shortly before 23:00 and again before midnight on 6 November, then around 01:00 and again at 03:04 and 03:30 on 7 November local time, with air-raid sirens sounding for much of the night. Zelensky said the attack was timed three days before trilateral talks due in Abu Dhabi on 10-11 November involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States, and called for stronger American and congressional support for Kyiv.