Overnight strikes hit Kyiv and Moscow as Ukraine targets Russian aerospace facility in Samara

Kyiv under missile fire

Overnight, Kyiv was hit by a new missile attack. Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed several explosions in the capital, which caused a fire in a non-residential building in the Obolonsky district. No casualties were reported at the time of publication. The strike on Kyiv fits into an intensifying phase of the conflict marked by increasing Russian bombardments of Ukrainian cities, conducted also with the use of North Korean ballistic missiles, alongside continuing Ukrainian drone incursions against military infrastructure and oil refineries on Russian territory.

Russia intercepts drone swarm near Moscow

Russia declared it had repelled a large drone attack directed toward its own capital. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defense forces shot down about 28 unmanned aircraft approaching the city. The reported interception follows a series of Ukrainian long-range drone operations targeting military infrastructure and oil refineries across Russian territory in recent months.

Ukrainian strikes on Samara and Savasleyka

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on X that Ukrainian forces had struck the Progress Rocket and Space Centre in the Samara region overnight, a key Roscosmos facility about 900 km from the border. The plant produces Soyuz-2 rockets used by Moscow to launch military, reconnaissance, and telecommunications satellites into orbit. According to Ukrainian intelligence, rockets manufactured at the facility also deploy the Rassvet satellite constellation, a system Russia is developing as an alternative to the commercial Starlink network.

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces also struck the Savasleyka air base, about 700 km from Ukraine, where Russian missile carriers that strike Ukrainian cities and villages are based. Telegram monitoring channels reported that the base hosts Mig-31 fighters capable of launching Kinzhal ballistic missiles, and that fires were reported in the area after the explosions. The base is located in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 660 km from the nearest Ukrainian border according to monitoring channel Exilenova Plus.

“Our long-range actions have also reached the Savasleyka air base, where the carriers of the Russian missiles that strike our cities and our villages are based, about 700 kilometers from Ukraine. Our plan of long-range attacks against Russia for this war is being implemented, and it is important that Russia's military potential be reduced. There is a need for peace, and this must be evident in Russia through concrete damage to specific facilities.”

Conflicting reports from Samara

Monitoring channels also reported explosions in the city of Samara, with channel Exilenova Plus claiming the attack was carried out with Ukrainian Flamingo missiles. Another channel, Supernova Plus, asserted that a Russian Oreshnik ballistic missile hit an important aerospace design and production facility in Samara, located about 800 km from the Russia-Ukraine border. The Kyiv Independent noted these details could not be immediately verified. The distance to the Samara facility is reported as approximately 800 km by one monitoring channel and about 900 km by the Ukrainian president's statement.

Putin visits Kuril Islands

Separately, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to the Kuril Islands for the first time. The islands are disputed with Japan.