Russia attacked twelve regions of Ukraine with missiles and drones overnight into Thursday, killing at least two people and injuring 34 others, including five children, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky announced this on Facebook on Thursday, 22 October, as reported by Ukrinform. According to the president, three waves of ballistic missiles were fired at Kyiv alone since Wednesday evening, 21 missiles in total.
In the capital, at least one person was killed and 24 others were injured, including five teenagers and two small children, according to the authorities. The figures differ between reports depending on when they were counted: the television channel n-tv initially cited 22 injured, including four children, and one dead person early in the morning, citing authorities. The Berliner Morgenpost reported at least one dead and 24 injured in the night to 22 October. n-tv put the number of people killed in Ukraine since Wednesday at at least ten on Thursday morning, including victims in Sumy, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and the Donetsk region, based on information from regional authorities.
According to Zelensky, residential buildings, energy facilities, the infrastructure of a railway station and the metro, shopping centres, businesses and even a monastery were hit. The news agency AP reports, citing the president, damage to residential buildings, energy facilities, a railway station, Kyiv’s metro system, shopping centres and shops. According to the Guardian, the Southern Bridge over the Dnipro, a rescue station and office buildings were also damaged. The television channel n-tv reported, citing Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, that the missiles struck the city throughout the night and residents had to take shelter.
A warhead detonating over the old town
According to the president’s adviser for technology, Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, Kyiv’s old town was attacked with an Iskander missile carrying a K5 cluster munition warhead. This detonates above the ground and is designed to cause maximum damage to people and material over an area of 400 by 400 metres, Beskrestnov said, according to the news outlet NV. “This attack was not carried out for a military purpose,” he said. “The goal was to destroy part of the old town and injure as many people as possible.” The Berliner Morgenpost points out that the use of cluster munitions can be considered a war crime particularly when it occurs in densely populated areas. According to NV, the Union of Orthodox Journalists reported that the Monastery of the Presentation of the Lord of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was damaged; debris tore open the roof and two parishioners were among the injured.
According to reports from Kyiv, the attacks also hit other parts of the country. NV reports, citing the Ukrainian air force, a massive strike with ballistic missiles and 210 drones in the night to 22 October, of which 181 were intercepted. According to the report, there was also damage in Kremenchuk in the Poltava region, in Kharkiv, in the Vinnytsia region, in Odesa and in Volhynia. n-tv reported, citing a regional official on Telegram, that a drone hit the energy infrastructure in the Kremenchuk area; the site is an important industrial location with one of Ukraine’s largest oil refineries. According to the news agency AP, Russian drone attacks on residential areas and civilian infrastructure in the Kharkiv region killed one person and injured at least 13 others, as the State Emergency Service announced. In the city of Chernihiv, according to the head of the military administration, whom n-tv quotes citing Ukrainska Pravda, a 61-year-old was killed and a 54-year-old was injured when the buildings of a company were hit.
A “demonstrative strike” immediately after the talks
Zelensky sees the attacks as Moscow’s direct response to the latest negotiations. “In fact, Russia delivered a demonstrative strike immediately after the latest negotiations,” he said, according to Ukrinform. “This means that nothing essential has changed in its attitude to everything that is happening.” The British Guardian reports that US envoy Steve Witkoff spoke with President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Wednesday; Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov subsequently stated that Putin had “in principle” agreed to a resumption of trilateral talks between Russia, the USA and Ukraine after 10 November, a week after the US midterm elections. The Guardian quotes Witkoff as saying to Putin: “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanist. You are a humanist too, sir, and I respect you for that.”
As a consequence, Zelensky called for a strengthening of air defence, the rapid delivery of missiles capable of destroying ballistic missiles, and further sanctions over the war. “If Russian missiles are the answer to negotiations, real pressure must be exerted on Russia,” he said, according to Ukrinform. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha declared on X that “appeasement, servility and flattery” would not stop the Russian war, as n-tv reports. The Guardian quotes him as saying that “appeasement, servility and flattery” would not end Russian aggression.
The attacks hit Ukraine shortly before winter, during which, according to Kyiv’s assessment, the energy supply is to be deliberately destroyed. The Guardian writes that experts see the strikes as an attempt to destroy the energy infrastructure before winter; Ukraine accuses Russia of hoarding ballistic missiles for an annual campaign that Ukrainians describe as the “weapon of winter”. AP reports that the USA has resumed the sharing of intelligence warnings about Russian missile attacks, but has so far not reversed the throttling of Starshield, the military version of the Starlink satellite internet. On the question of further Patriot ammunition and sanctions, AP names no new commitments from Washington.
Russia, for its part, reported hundreds of intercepted Ukrainian drones. Russian air defence intercepted 808 drones launched by Ukraine, the Russian military announced on Thursday, according to AP. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin stated, according to n-tv, that 630 drones were launched towards the region during the night, 163 headed for Moscow, and two people were injured. The Guardian also reports, citing local authorities, that in the Belgorod region a man was killed and another injured by a Ukrainian air strike. According to n-tv, the Russian defence ministry announced that ships used by the Ukrainian army were also hit during the night.
Editor’s note: The casualty figures are statements from the Ukrainian side and were revised upwards several times during the day; the figures for Kyiv and for the whole country come from different reports and points in time.
