After talks by US special envoy Witkoff in Russia, Russia and Ukraine attacked each other’s capitals overnight. Russian missile strikes on Kyiv injured at least 15 people during the night, eight of whom had to be taken to hospital. The city authorities announced this, as reported by broadcaster Deutsche Welle on Thursday, 22 October. At the same time, Moscow's mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that 630 drones had been launched at the region during the night, and that at least two people had been injured.
According to Tagesschau, the attack on the Ukrainian capital took place late in the evening of the previous day. The highest alert level was triggered at 22:06 local time (21:06 CEST), and two minutes later the Ukrainian air force reported the approach of several missiles. A second wave of attacks followed about an hour and a half later, without any new impacts being reported. At around 2 a.m. local time, according to media reports, there were again impacts and explosions.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that residential buildings and a petrol station on the eastern bank of the Dnipro had been damaged by falling debris. Later he reported damage to parts of the southern bridge over the river, and the metro infrastructure there was also affected. Tagesschau also reports that it cannot be ruled out that people still need to be rescued from damaged buildings.
In the Kharkiv region in north-eastern Ukraine, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov, a woman was killed and four other people were injured. According to the local authorities, a drone also hit energy infrastructure in the Poltava region; they gave no further details.
In the western Russian city of Lipetsk, according to Governor Igor Artamonov, a man was injured when drones hit residential buildings and a medical facility. Moscow’s mayor Sobyanin wrote on social networks that most of the 630 drones had been destroyed by air defence systems; 163 of them had approached the capital.
The attacks followed talks by US special envoy Steve Witkoff: according to Deutsche Welle, he had previously met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Norway earlier this week, and then on Wednesday met President Vladimir Putin in Russia. Putin had “in principle” agreed to resume the US-mediated peace talks with Kyiv “as early as next month”. Zelensky said on Wednesday that Ukraine supported a US proposal for talks at the level of negotiators, as soon as possible. After the meeting with Putin, US President Donald Trump said that they had been “as close” to ending the war as never before.
