Russian missile strikes hit Kyiv medical sites and a dormitory before Oleshky truce

Strikes on Kyiv on 26 October

Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital killed one person and wounded eight in an attack late on Monday, 26 October, according to mayor Vitali Klitschko. He said a blast wave shattered the windows of an intensive care unit at one medical facility, while windows in two wards were broken at another facility in the same district. A dormitory belonging to one of Kyiv's universities also had its windows shattered, and a 20-year-old woman was wounded near it. A separate strike near a supermarket killed one person, according to preliminary reports cited by Klitschko. He wrote on social media about the medical sites:

“Neither patients nor medical staff were wounded.”

Ukrainian authorities later reported the number of wounded at 10, above the eight that Klitschko had given, and said at least one person had been killed.

Zelenskyy on the missile impacts

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ballistic missiles had landed on university grounds in Kyiv and the surrounding area, including the campus, Kyoto Park, a zone near a metro station and residential buildings. He described the impacts in a social media post:

“The missiles hit very crowded areas, and there is not a single military facility nearby.”

He called the attack a strike directly on the city and its infrastructure. Before the latest strikes, Zelenskyy had said Ukraine was still waiting for US defence secretary Pete Hegseth to approve missiles for Patriot and NASAMS air defence systems, a wait of nearly a month. He said he had instructed his team to raise the matter with the American side once again.

Oleshky truce

The strikes came hours before a truce in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, was due to begin at 3am local time. The ceasefire is meant to open a path for humanitarian aid to residents who have faced months of dire food, water and medicine shortages. It has no end date, and neither Russia, Ukraine nor the United States has said who will monitor it or set out the aid operation that is to accompany it. The Russian defence ministry said on Friday, 23 October, that it would halt fire in the "Kherson sector" for the duration of the ceasefire. Ukraine accuses Russia of blocking residents from leaving Oleshky, a charge Moscow has denied.

Talks and wider pressure

Russia has intensified drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, keeping Kyiv, a city of around three million people, on a near-constant state of alert. On Monday, 26 October, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow said Russia would keep up its attacks despite three-way talks with Ukraine and the United States planned for November, and that resuming negotiations would bring no restrictions on combat operations. Moscow did not rule out further local truces for humanitarian reasons. The sides are preparing to restart stalled talks under US mediation.

Elon Musk separately accused Ukraine's military of using Starlink satellite internet for offensive drone attacks meant to kill people, which he said breached the service's terms. He posted the claim on X without citing specific evidence, cases or dates, and said the loophole had since been closed.