Massive Russian Drone and Missile Barrage Kills 20, Injures 100+ — Apartment Block Razed in Ternopil

Russian forces launched a large overnight assault across Ukraine using hundreds of drones and missiles, leaving at least 20 people dead and more than 100 injured, officials said. The strikes hit multiple regions and damaged civilian infrastructure, while Ukrainian air defenses intercepted the majority of incoming weapons.

Ternopil: deadliest strike

The deadliest hit occurred in the western city of Ternopil, about 70 miles southeast of Lviv, where a nine‑storey apartment building was almost completely destroyed. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported 20 fatalities and 66 wounded, including 16 children. Images and video from the scene show the building reduced to smouldering rubble above the third floor. Emergency teams continued searching the wreckage into Wednesday morning.

Local authorities ordered residents to remain indoors and keep windows closed after measurements detected harmful gases and particulates at roughly six times normal levels.

Other strikes and damage

Western regions including Lviv, Ivano‑Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi were struck, with attacks targeting energy, transport and other civilian infrastructure. Three people were injured in Ivano‑Frankivsk. In Khmelnytskyi, damage to power generation and distribution left up to 2,000 people without electricity amid sub‑zero temperatures.

In the northeast, at least 30 people were injured after drones attacked three districts of Kharkiv, setting buildings and vehicles on fire. President Volodymyr Zelensky said other regions — including Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Dnipro — also sustained strikes.

Air defenses and differing tallies

Officials gave differing counts of incoming weapons. Ukrainian authorities reported that the attack involved roughly 470–500 attack drones and about 48 missiles (mostly cruise missiles). The Ukrainian military said air defenses intercepted 442 drones and 41 cruise missiles, but that seven missiles and 34 drones breached defenses and struck 14 locations; debris from downed weapons damaged an additional six sites.

Diplomatic context

The barrage occurred as President Zelensky travelled from Spain to Turkey to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying he aimed to "reinvigorate" stalled peace talks with Moscow. Separate reports said U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff has held behind‑the‑scenes discussions with Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev about a possible peace plan. The Kremlin's Dmitry Peskov declined to confirm those talks and said Moscow would not send a representative to the Ankara talks on Wednesday.

U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff General Randy George were due to visit Kyiv in the days following the attacks; they are the most senior U.S. Army officials to travel to Ukraine in nine months.

Note: Casualty and strike figures come from multiple official Ukrainian statements and may be revised as rescue operations and assessments continue.