At least 15 killed in Ukraine as Zelensky condemns 'vile' large-scale strikes

What the report says

At least 15 people were killed in overnight strikes across central and eastern Ukraine, according to BBC World News, as President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack as one of Russia’s most severe and said it involved around 70 missiles. The strikes hit several cities, including Kyiv, Dnipro, Kremenchuk, Zaporizhzhia, Oleksandriya and Pryluky in the Chernihiv region.

The heaviest damage reported by BBC World News was in Pryluky, where a residential apartment building was destroyed and emergency teams continued searching for possible survivors in the rubble. Zelensky said children were among those killed and injured there, while local police later said the death toll had risen as bodies were recovered. Other deaths were reported in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kremenchuk and Oleksandriya. BBC Verify said images shared by Ukraine’s police appeared to show a genuine unexploded missile fragment in Kyiv.

Zelensky said one of the main targets was Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and renewed his call for stronger air defence support from allies. He also said Ukrainian forces carried out retaliatory strikes on targets inside Russia, including in the Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions, though he did not provide detailed evidence of the damage. Moscow had not publicly commented on the latest strikes at the time of the report.