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Russia is wearing down Kyiv’s air defenses with near-daily drone attacks. Now the strikes continue into daylight.

Source: Meduza

Russia has changed how it attacks Kyiv. It now uses jet-powered drones to strike the Ukrainian capital and other cities. These drones are faster than conventional models and harder to shoot down. The attacks have also become more frequent: Russia launches drones at night and in waves throughout the day, wearing down air defenses and bringing normal life in Kyiv to a standstill. The new tactics became apparent in late August, when Kyiv came under continuous attack for five days. The intensity then eased slightly, but attacks intensified again over the past week: daily strikes from September 22 to 28 killed 13 Kyiv residents and injured more than 160. Overall, Kyiv suffered civilian casualties on 16 of September’s first 24 days — something that had never happened since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

Meduza shows the aftermath of the attacks that have become a daily reality for Kyiv.

Firefighters extinguish a fire at a warehouse near Kyiv on September 20. That day, Russian forces struck the “Eco Market” warehouse in the Boryspil district of the Kyiv region, injuring one person.
Sergey Dolzhenko / EPA / Scanpix / LETA
A five-story building in the Dniprovskyi district of Kyiv was damaged in an attack in the early hours of September 22. Five residents of the building were injured.
Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Smoke rises over a residential neighborhood in Kyiv after a Russian drone attack on September 23. That day, a gas station, warehouses, a store, and a business center in the city were damaged. Two people were killed, and 45 were injured.
Alina Smutko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
A woman near the business center attacked by Russian drones on September 23.
Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
The former market known as “Zaliznychny” (“Railway”), which Kyiv residents call “Shaiba” (“the puck”), caught fire in Kyiv after a drone attack on September 23. The building was built in 1973 and is considered an example of Kyiv modernist architecture.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
Broken windows at a Kyiv maternity hospital that came under attack in the early hours of September 24. The women in the maternity hospital were not injured; they had reached a shelter in the basement before the strike. A boy was born in the shelter during the attack. Volodymyr Zelensky has already met the boy and his mother.
Gleb Garanich / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
One of the drones came down on the grounds of a garage cooperative in the Obolonskyi district of Kyiv during a daytime attack on September 24. Cars caught fire, and one person was injured.
Vladyslav Musiienko / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
The body of one of those killed in a strike on the “Inkom” office center in the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv on September 25. Four people died at “Inkom,” and seven were injured. In total, there were 59 injured and seven killed in Kyiv that day.
Oleksii Filippov / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
Residents of a building attacked on September 26.
Gleb Garanich / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
A nine-story building in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv was hit by a Russian drone on September 27. The strike damaged six apartments, and a woman was injured.
Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Another residential building damaged on September 27. Its owner watches firefighters put out the blaze that engulfed his home.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
Russian forces struck the private medical center “Dobrobut” in Kyiv on September 28. Seven people were injured, six of them clinic employees.
Nikoletta Stoyanova / Getty Images
That same day, September 28, a Russian jet-powered drone attacked the building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, sparking a major fire.
Sergiy Chalyi / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
People working at the National Academy of Sciences tried to escape the fire through windows, and rescuers evacuated them using ladders. Two people died.
Alina Smutko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

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