Russia Pounds Kyiv After Peace Envoys Leave, Striking TV Newsroom (Worthy News Briefing)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russia has attacked Ukraine’s capital with powerful drones and missiles after a brief halt for the visit of U.S. peace negotiators, striking a television newsroom and other sites in attacks that killed at least five people and injured dozens more, authorities confirmed.

The bombardment came amid mounting concern within the Ukrainian government that the country may not have enough air-defense interceptors to protect its cities and critical infrastructure ahead of winter.

Overnight strikes caused fires across several districts of Kyiv and damaged at least 14 high-rise buildings, a dormitory, a school, a clinic, warehouses, and other sites, Ukrainian officials reported.

“Kyiv was exploding and burning,” European Union Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová wrote following the attacks. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported 35 people injured in the capital, while Mayor Vitali Klitschko put the death toll at five.

Attacks continued into daylight, with Russia deploying jet-powered drones over the capital into Tuesday afternoon.

TV NEWSROOM HIT

In a separate daytime strike, a Russian attack drone hit the Kyiv building housing the My-Ukraina and My-Ukraina+ television channels while journalists were broadcasting live as part of Ukraine’s national United News wartime newscast.

Most of the impact was concentrated on the newsroom and staff offices, partially destroying the building and injuring at least five people, according to the television channels and Ukrainian officials.

Rescuers and medical teams rushed to the scene, extinguishing a fire and evacuating people from the damaged building.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the drone struck “right in the middle of the day” while journalists were on air.

“Shaheds against media is a new page of Russian degradation, and there must certainly be a reaction from Europe and the world,” Zelenskyy added, referring to the Iranian-designed attack drones widely used by Russia.

CIVILIAN SITES STRUCK

Ukraine’s parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech alleged the strike deliberately targeted journalists and media infrastructure. Worthy News could not independently establish whether the television channels were intentionally targeted.

Russia’s Defense Ministry maintained that its wider attacks targeted military and logistical facilities in Kyiv and the surrounding region, despite mounting evidence that civilian sites have also been struck.

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly denied deliberately targeting civilians during the war, although residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure have repeatedly been damaged or destroyed.

The latest attacks came shortly after U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had left Kyiv on Sunday following talks with Zelenskyy as the administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump renewed efforts to end Russia’s more than four-and-a-half-year full-scale invasion.

Russia and Ukraine had pledged not to attack each other’s capitals during the American envoys’ visits to Moscow and Kyiv, providing a brief respite from the long-range strikes that have become a regular feature of the war.

PEACE EFFORTS CONTINUE

Earlier, Witkoff and Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The Kremlin subsequently indicated it did not rule out renewed three-way negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States.

Yet Russia’s latest strikes underscored Ukraine’s increasingly urgent air-defense problems.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha appealed to Western allies for additional interceptors capable of destroying ballistic missiles, warning that Kyiv’s stocks had fallen to critically low levels.

Zelenskyy described the assault as complex and designed to cause maximum harm, acknowledging that ballistic missiles remain particularly difficult for Ukrainian forces to intercept.

Ukraine’s air force reported destroying nearly all the cruise missiles launched in the attack as well as two ballistic missiles, although several weapons penetrated the country’s defenses.

PATRIOT MISSILES SOUGHT

The war-torn nation is contracting for about 1,000 missiles for U.S.-designed Patriot air-defense systems with support from allies and a European Union loan, Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara confirmed Tuesday.

However, most of those missiles are expected to arrive over several years, prompting Kyiv to appeal for additional interceptors from Western allies’ existing stocks.

NATO military alliance Secretary-General Mark Rutte urged Ukraine’s allies to increase their support so Kyiv can defend its cities and hold the front line.

Such shortages are particularly concerning as Russia increasingly deploys drones and missiles throughout the day rather than concentrating its bombardments at night.

Russian strikes also hit several other parts of Ukraine, with about 90 people reportedly evacuated after drones struck a Kyiv-Sumy passenger train in the northern Sumy region.

ATTACKS BEYOND KYIV

A separate commuter train was struck in the same region, leaving several passengers with shrapnel wounds. Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday that two women, aged 60 and 79, later died in hospital from injuries suffered in that attack.

In southern Ukraine, a railway worker was killed in what emergency services described as a Russian “double-tap” drone strike on a Dnipro-Zaporizhzhia passenger train.

Three people were injured in an attack on a market near the Black Sea port of Odesa, while two people were killed and three injured in the Kyiv region outside the capital.

Officials also reported two deaths near Nikopol, across the Dnipro River from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, while another person was killed in the southern Kherson region.

Additionally, repeated strikes on Black Sea ports have made Ukraine increasingly dependent on land routes for trade and exports.

MOLDOVA BORDER HIT

Russian drones struck the Starokozache border crossing in Ukraine’s Odesa region near Moldova on Wednesday, killing two civilians and injuring three others, Ukrainian and Moldovan officials reported.

About one kilometer (0.6 miles) from Moldovan territory, the checkpoint normally handles thousands of people and hundreds of vehicles each day. Traffic was halted following the attack.

Ukraine’s border guards reported that Russia has struck five border crossings in recent weeks — four along the Moldovan frontier and one bordering NATO member Romania.

Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tofan warned that Russian drone incursions into his country’s airspace have increased significantly, claiming that 17 drones fell in Moldova during August alone — as many as during all of 2025.

The violence has increasingly spread toward Ukraine’s western borders, raising concerns in neighboring Moldova and NATO member Romania.

LONG-RANGE WAR ESCALATES

With front lines largely static, Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks far beyond the battlefield.

Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities, military infrastructure and other sites in an effort to increase the economic and military cost to Moscow of continuing the war.

Zelenskyy announced Wednesday that Ukrainian forces had struck a naval base, oil terminal, military port facilities and missile-carrying warships in Russia’s Novorossiysk.

“A response is needed — Moscow must not go into the winter believing that it can get away with missile and drone terror without consequences,” the Ukrainian president stressed.

His Defense Minister Khmara also warned that the country faces a $27 billion financing shortfall for drone supplies as the conflict increasingly becomes dominated by unmanned weapons.

HUNGARY SHIFTS COURSE

International efforts to support Kyiv continued Wednesday when the European Union’s General Court dismissed a Hungarian challenge against the bloc’s decision to use windfall profits generated by frozen Russian central bank assets to support Ukraine’s armed forces.

The EU’s second-highest court concluded it lacked jurisdiction over the case, which the previous Hungarian government of Russia-friendly Prime Minister Viktor Orbán brought in 2024.

The ruling came a day after Hungary’s new government expelled 10 Russian diplomats over activities Budapest described as incompatible with their diplomatic status, marking a sharp departure from Orbán’s close relationship with Moscow.

The Kremlin warned Wednesday that the expulsions would receive an “appropriate response,” while stressing that Moscow remained open to developing relations with Hungary under Prime Minister Péter Magyar.

For Kyiv residents, however, the brief pause surrounding the American diplomatic mission provided only temporary relief.

“When foreign guests come to visit us, it’s always quiet here. You kind of relax, exhale, feel calm,” Yana, a 19-year-old supermarket worker, said near a heavily damaged apartment building. “And then they left, and everything went back to normal. Russia gathers all its strength and, with more drones and ballistic missiles, starts bombing Kyiv again.”