Russian drone strikes Ukrainian intelligence headquarters in Kyiv ahead of US peace mission

Strike on intelligence headquarters

On Friday, 4 September 2026, at approximately 15:30, a Russian drone struck the central headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Volodymyrska Street in central Kyiv. The strike directly targeted the office of acting SBU chief Oleksandr Poklad, who was not in the immediate vicinity during the impact and spoke with President Volodymyr Zelensky shortly after. Video footage showed smoke rising from a single office window while the remainder of the building remained intact. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and emergency officials reported nine injuries, with seven people hospitalized. The shockwave damaged the 18th-century House of the Consistory within the UNESCO-listed Saint Sophia Cathedral complex opposite the agency, and destroyed the nearby Zavertaylo restaurant.

Air campaign and cultural cancellations in Kyiv

The attack followed a ten-day period of frequent daytime strikes across the Ukrainian capital. Between 27 August and 1 September, Kyiv registered over 60 air alerts, requiring residents to spend roughly 52 hours inside shelters. On 1 September, a barrage of missiles and drones killed 12 people in the capital and surrounding region, including six Ukrainian railway workers, and injured over 20 others. A subsequent strike on 2 September damaged a university building in central Kyiv while 160 students were sheltering below ground. Due to the security environment, organizers postponed multiple cultural events, including the Young Blood Live concert and the Kurazh festival scheduled for 19–20 September, while GogolFest curtailed its 16–20 September schedule by cancelling its headline events.

US diplomatic mission to Moscow and Kyiv

The escalation occurred as US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner prepared to travel to Moscow on 5 September and Kyiv on 6 September with a framework to end the conflict. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated that the strike on intelligence headquarters demonstrated that Moscow rejected diplomatic resolution.

Witkoff and Kushner are bringing a proposal to Moscow to end the war. We have an idea for peace. In this war there is a personality problem, there is real hatred between Putin and Zelensky.

Donald Trump added that Russian forces would not target NATO territory and estimated monthly battlefield fatalities at 25,000 soldiers on average.

Ukrainian military response and proposed pause

Zelensky announced that Ukrainian defense forces and Poklad had selected retaliation targets for the intelligence headquarters attack. However, the Ukrainian leadership offered an operational pause on cross-border strikes during the American diplomatic visit.

From our side there will be no air strikes and Russia must also guarantee, in a reciprocal manner, a pause in air strikes for all the time necessary for the talks to take place and for handling the logistical issues related to this American visit.

Active combat continued along other sectors of the front, where Russian forces captured the village of Gruzskoye in the Donetsk region and launched strikes on Odesa and Kherson, while Ukrainian forces targeted oil and naval facilities in Sochi.