Russian strikes on Kyiv in the night to Monday killed a 21-year-old woman and injured eight people. As the Ukrainian civil protection service DSNS reported on its Telegram channel, the consequences were recorded in at least three districts of the capital.
According to BBC Ukraine, Russia had attacked the city with ballistic missiles late on the evening of Sunday, 18 October; drone attacks followed during the night. Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko initially reported the death of the 21-year-old and later three injured. According to the civil protection service on Monday, the number of injured rose to eight.
Fires in three districts, metro station damaged
In the Desnianskyi district, according to DSNS, emergency crews extinguished a fire in a three-storey non-residential building. The facade was partly destroyed, parked cars nearby were damaged. A dead person was found at the fire site. At another address in the same district, according to DSNS, a Kyiv metro station was damaged.
The metro said that during the massive shelling an above-ground station as well as tracks and the cable network were affected. In the morning, trains run between the stations “Akademmistechko” and “Darnytsia” according to schedule. The above-ground stations “Chernihivska” and “Lisova” remain temporarily closed for entry and exit, according to BBC Ukraine.
In the Solomianskyi district, according to DSNS, a fire broke out in a medical facility on the third floor of a 25-storey residential building. The facade and windows of the building were damaged. In the Dniprovskyi district, a building of an educational institution was hit.
Attacks on energy infrastructure as part of the winter strategy
The night strikes on Kyiv fall in a phase of intensified Russian air attacks. The Vienna daily “Die Presse” reported on Sunday, 18 October, citing the energy think tank DiXi Group, that attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure had been increasing again since the end of September. In September, Russia had deployed more than 6,300 long-range drones against Ukraine, 30 per cent more than in August, the newspaper writes.
The research director of the DiXi Group, Roman Nizovych, told “Die Presse” that there was reason enough to consider a pessimistic scenario “very likely”. “Basically we are seeing a repeat of the situation in Kyiv from the end of January 2026, but on a larger scale,” Nizovych said. The Russians were deliberately maintaining the pressure in order to make life impossible, force people to flee and destabilise the situation.
The data analyst Marcus Welsch, who observes the war for the “Monitor Luftkrieg”, told “Die Presse” that Kyiv was currently the most affected by the air strikes. “That is new.” The Russians reconsidered every winter how they could bring about the collapse of the Ukrainian power grid.
At the same time, Nizovych pointed to remaining reserves: the gas storage facilities were full, unlike in many EU states. In electricity generation, Ukraine had restored capacities. In August, the government had expected to be able to increase the available power capacity, including import possibilities, to 21.4 gigawatts by the end of the year – provided further Russian attacks did not cause significant damage.
The energy expert Olena Pavlenko, president of the DiXi Group, referred to “Die Presse” to a resilience plan adopted in the country that obliges the municipalities. “This transfers responsibility to communities and cities,” she said. Cities such as Khmelnytskyi and Zhytomyr were considered well prepared, Kyiv however not to the same extent. For the European public, Nizovych has a warning: “The population should be prepared for scenarios such as power outages or damage to substations.”
On the same morning, according to BBC Ukraine, Russia also attacked Lviv with a jet-powered drone. The Kyiv city head Andrii Sadovyi and the governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyi, had previously warned of the drone’s approach. Air defence in the region was reported. Drones had already been in action over Lviv the day before; according to BBC, two were shot down on the city outskirts, residential buildings were damaged and a logistics warehouse burned.
The information on the victims in Kyiv comes from the civil protection service DSNS and from the city’s mayor. An independent confirmation from the military administration was initially not available.
