Russia Launches Drone Strikes on Kyiv

PHOTO CAPTION: Parts of a shot-down kamikaze drone at a site of a Russian strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Vyshneve in Kyiv region, Ukraine, August 28, 2026. REUTERS/Alina Smutko

KYIV, Aug. 28 — Russia launched waves of drones at Kyiv and the surrounding region on Friday, killing at least one person and damaging homes and warehouses in a second consecutive day of strikes that Ukrainian officials said were aimed at disrupting daily life for millions of residents.

Kyiv regional governor Tymur Tkachenko said at least one person was killed outside the capital. He said 14 warehouse premises, 16 homes and three apartment blocks were damaged.

Air-raid sirens sounded repeatedly across Kyiv on Friday morning, one day after an hours-long Russian missile and drone attack targeted major retailers and consumer logistics operations in Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine.

The attacks continued Friday. Ukraine’s largest private courier, Nova Poshta, said sorting centers near Kyiv and in the northern city of Sumy were destroyed, while a Russian drone struck an Epicenter home-improvement store in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, wounding at least four people, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.

Ukraine’s state emergency service said Russia had attacked the Kyiv region 38 times during the previous 24 hours and warned residents to stay away from areas where firefighters were still battling blazes.

Ukraine says attacks aim to disrupt Kyiv

Friday’s strikes appeared to prolong disruptions caused by attacks a day earlier that delayed trains across several regions and left passengers stranded.

“The enemy is launching small numbers of jet-powered UAVs in waves with the aim of paralysing Kyiv,” said Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, which is part of the National Security Council.

“The aim - to wear down the air defences and the population,” he said.

Ukraine’s state railway said Friday that delays were gradually easing but warned that repeated strikes and air-raid alerts would continue affecting service for at least another day. Kyiv spent nearly 15 hours under air-raid alert Thursday, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.

Russian forces also struck a shopping center in the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Friday, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, the second such attack there in two days.

Russia and Ukraine have intensified attacks in recent weeks against consumer logistics operations and online retailers in an effort to damage each other’s economies and weaken their respective war efforts.

A separate Russian drone strike Friday destroyed a warehouse in the Kyiv region belonging to a major book retailer that shipped thousands of titles each day, the company said.

(Source: Reuters)