Kyiv CNN —

Russia launched 315 drones at Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said was “one of the largest” attacks on the capital Kyiv, as officials said a maternity ward in the southern port city of Odesa had been hit.

Air raid sirens blared across Kyiv just after midnight, announcing an imminent Russian attack. What followed was a long and terrifying night.

CNN staff on the ground heard air defense systems working non-stop in the city center. Hiding in basements, public shelters and corridors and bathrooms – often the safest spots in their homes – Kyiv residents could hear and feel the loud thuds of explosions. Dozens of drones were heard flying over the city center over a period of about three hours, sometimes a few at a time. Their number was unusual: While Russia has significantly increased the scale and frequency of drone attacks in recent weeks, a handful at most would be heard in Kyiv during previous assaults.

Seven districts of the capital were hit by the Russian attacks and falling debris. High-rise buildings, homes, cars and warehouses were left burning, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, who said it was a “tough night for all of us.”

One person was killed, according to Tkachenko, while Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said four people were also wounded.

“Today was one of the largest attacks on Kyiv,” Zelensky said wrote on X. “Russian missile and Shahed strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace.”

Meanwhile, a separate wave of attacks hit the southern city of Odesa, where residents said they couldn’t remember a night of so many strikes.

At least two men were killed and nine people wounded in the port city, according to a Telegram post from the region’s Prosecutor’s Office. One of the Russian strikes hit a maternity ward of a hospital in the city, according to Andriy Yermak, the president’s chief of staff.

A firefighter works at the site of a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 10, 2025. Thomas Peter/Reuters

Video footage from Reuters showed a woman in hospital scrubs sweeping shards of broken glass from the maternity ward that was struck.

A 78-year-old Odesa resident, Violetta, who preferred to be identified by her first name only due to security concerns, told CNN it was “a terrible night.”

“My garage with my car is destroyed… We’ve had a terrible time. Thank God I’m not hurt. I heard the siren in time and ran into the hallway to hide. It was just in time, because the roof of my apartment collapsed,” she said, standing next to her car covered by piles of rubble.

“I heard other explosions in Odesa, but nothing compares to this, it’s so close. My neighbor, a boy, was wounded, his shoulder was cut by glass, and last night they took him to get stitches.

Lyudmila, 60, described the frightening loud bangs and scenes of glass and plaster flying everywhere when the drones hit.

“It’s very scary because it’s close by. Drones were flying around all the time, banging and banging. It was very scary, but in four years this is the first time we’ve been hit. It’s very hard mentally,” said Lyudmila, who also preferred to only use her first name.

Russia also launched two KN-23 ballistic missiles and five Iskander-K cruise missiles in the overnight attack, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

The overnight attacks follow Russia’s biggest drone strike on Ukraine on Monday, where Russia fired 479 UAVs in an overnight aerial assault, surpassing the highest number of drones Moscow has launched in a single day for the second consecutive weekend.

This story has been updated with the latest developments.

An explosion of a drone is seen during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

An explosion of a drone is seen during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

Russia launched one of its largest air strikes on Kyiv in over three years of war and struck a maternity ward in the southern city of Odesa in attacks that killed at least two people, officials said on Tuesday.

The overnight strikes followed Russia’s biggest drone assault of the war on Ukraine on Monday and were part of intensified bombardments what Moscow says is retaliation for attacks by Ukrainian forces on Russia.

Loud explosions shook Kyiv and blasts and fires lit up the sky in the early hours of Tuesday morning, leaving palls of heavy smoke over the city, Reuters witnesses said.

At least four people were treated in hospital after seven of the capital’s 10 districts were hit, city officials said.

“Today was one of the largest attacks on Kyiv,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “Russian missile and Shahed (drone) strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace.”

Zelensky urged Ukraine’s allies to take steps to force Russia into peace, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for immediate new sanctions and air defence systems.

Although Moscow and Kyiv have held two rounds of direct peace talks in recent weeks, the only tangible progress has been an agreement on exchanges of prisoners of war, and Russia has continued to advance along the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for the lack of progress towards ending the war, which has raged since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with both sides.

Russia temporarily halted flights overnight at four airports serving Moscow, at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport and at airports in nine other cities after the Defence Ministry said Ukraine had launched more drones at Russia, officials said.

Flights in Moscow and some other cities were later restored but restrictions were still in place in St Petersburg at 0430 GMT. No damage was reported.

‘DIFFICULT NIGHT’

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired 315 drones across the country, of which 277 were downed. All seven missiles launched by Russia were also brought down, it said.

Air raid alerts in Kyiv and most Ukrainian regions lasted five hours until around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), according to information released by the military.

“A difficult night for all of us,” Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s city military administration, said on Telegram.

Moscow has intensified attacks on Ukraine following Kyiv’s strikes on strategic bombers at air bases inside Russia on June 1. Moscow also blamed Kyiv for bridge explosions on the same day that killed seven and injured scores.

Over the past week, Russia has launched 1,451 drones and 78 missiles to attack the country, according to Ukrainian air force data.

In the southern port of Odesa, an overnight drone attack hit an emergency medical building, a maternity ward and residential buildings, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.

Two men were killed in the attack on the city but patients and staff were safely evacuated from the maternity hospital, he said.

Both sides deny targeting civilians but thousands of civilians have been killed in Europe’s worst conflict since World War Two, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults on Ukraine overnight, bombarding the capital Kyiv with drones and missiles while killing at least two people in the southern port city of Odesa, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia deployed 315 drones across the country in the early hours of Tuesday, describing the assault as “one of the largest strikes on Kyiv.”

Explosions rocked seven of Kyiv’s ten districts, injuring at least four people and sparking fires in residential buildings and warehouses.

Images shared on social media showed the sky over the capital illuminated by orange flashes and thick plumes of smoke billowing from multiple sites.

Officials confirmed, in Odesa, that drone strikes hit residential buildings and medical facilities, including a maternity ward, resulting in the deaths of two civilians.

President Zelensky later reported 13 others were injured in the southern city.

Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper stated that patients and medical staff were evacuated in time, though ambulances and nearby infrastructure were damaged.

“Those injured are receiving medical care,” Kiper added.

In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents to remain in shelters, warning that “the massive attack on the capital continues.”

The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Timur Tkachenko, said attacks struck various districts “simultaneously”, adding that debris from intercepted drones caused significant damage.

Elsewhere, the Dnipro and Chernihiv regions were also targeted. Zelensky claimed that two of the seven missiles launched were ballistic missiles of North Korean origin.

“These Russian attacks drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,” Zelensky said.

“For yet another night, instead of a ceasefire, there were massive strikes. It is vital that the response to this is not silence, but concrete action.”

Ukraine also carried out drone attacks deep inside Russian territory overnight, prompting temporary airport closures, Russian authorities confirmed.

These retaliatory strikes follow Ukraine’s covert “Operation Spider’s Web” on June 1, which targeted air bases within Russia.

The Kremlin had vowed to respond “very strongly” to those attacks, with President Vladimir Putin reportedly relaying that promise during a call with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The escalation in attacks comes just as Ukraine begins a complex prisoner exchange, which President Zelensky said would involve the return of 12,000 soldiers’ bodies, as well as sick and seriously injured prisoners of war and combatants under the age of 25.

Zelensky described the swap as unfolding “in several stages” and involving “many sensitive details.”

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the war has now dragged into its third year with periodic escalations and little sign of a lasting resolution.

Russia launched one of its biggest air attacks on Kyiv overnight, officials said, using more than 300 drones and seven missiles in strikes that also hit other parts of the country.

One person was killed and several more injured in the five hour-long attack on the capital that hit seven of the city’s 10 districts, according to Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor.

A Telegraph journalist was holed up in an air raid shelter and heard the buzzing of drones, followed by explosions and blaring air raid sirens throughout the night.

In the southern port city of Odesa, a maternity hospital and residential buildings were also hit, killing two people and injuring nine, local authorities said.

Condemning the attacks, Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said: “You can’t break Ukrainians with terror.”

It came a day after Moscow launched its biggest overnight drone bombardment of the three-year war, considered part of a retaliatory response to Ukraine’s extraordinary June 1 drone attack on Russia’s remote bomber bases.

“It is vital that the response to this and other similar Russian attacks is not silence from the world, but concrete action,” Mr Zelensky said this morning, adding that two of the missiles were North Korean-made.

✕ Close Zelensky says Russia is ‘ignoring all peace proposals’

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Russian forces launched a devastating five-hour drone assault on Kyiv on Tuesday in one of the largest attacks on the capital of the war so far.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Moscow’s forces fired over 315 drones at Ukraine overnight, killing a total of seven people.

Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said four people were injured in the attack on the capital, which sparked fires across the city.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Mr Zelensky said: “Every night, instead of a ceasefire, there have been massive strikes with Shaheds, cruise missiles and ballistics. Today was one of the largest strikes on Kyiv. Odesa, the Dnipro region and Chernihiv region were also targeted.”

The attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment in the three-year war.

Kyiv had been anticipating a strong Russian response to its Operation Spider Web attack on June 1 that hit Russian aircraft.