The 7 October strike: 20 dead in Pryluky, victims in Kremenchuk, Kyiv and Oleksandriia

One of the heaviest strikes of the autumn

From the evening of 6 October to the morning of 7 October Russia launched a combined strike on Ukraine with several types of missiles and drones. According to the Air Force, from 18:00 on Tuesday the enemy fired Zircon/Onyx anti-ship missiles, Iskander-M/S-400/KN-23 ballistic missiles, 48 Kh-101, Iskander-K and Kalibr cruise missiles, and 130 attack drones, 46 of them jet-powered. By 09:00 on Wednesday air defence had shot down or suppressed 161 targets: 5 ballistic and 39 cruise missiles and 117 drones. Hits were recorded at 18 locations.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that in total Russia used about 70 missiles, many of them ballistic. According to him, infrastructure in Kyiv and 12 regions came under fire, and energy was one of the key targets. “Russian ballistic missiles remain the biggest challenge,” he said, adding that Ukraine is looking for Patriot missiles every day.

Pryluky: a stairwell of a five-storey block destroyed

The highest death toll was in Pryluky in Chernihiv region. As the head of the regional administration, Viacheslav Chaus, reported, in the morning the enemy struck the city with cruise missiles “right at people who were still asleep”. There were hits at several locations: one stairwell of a five-storey block was completely destroyed, and missiles also hit an enterprise, private houses and a children’s and youth creativity centre. According to Suspilne, by 15:00 15 apartment blocks and 16 private houses had been damaged in the city.

By the evening of 7 October the death toll in Pryluky had risen to 20, including five children. Another 55 people were injured, seven of them children. Zelensky named the children who were killed – three of them were just one year old. Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said 15 people, including one child, had been pulled from the rubble; nationwide almost 500 rescuers and more than 100 vehicles were involved in emergency work. Pryluky declared mourning for 7–9 October.

Kremenchuk, Kyiv, Oleksandriia

In Kremenchuk in Poltava region two people were killed in the missile attack, and by the evening the number of injured had risen to 47, including two children, said regional military administration head Vitalii Diakivnych. 8 October is a day of mourning in the city. Zelensky also mentioned damaged apartment blocks in Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, two people killed in Kyiv and two in Oleksandriia in Kirovohrad region.

In the evening Zelensky said the combined strike had killed 25 people and wounded 100. Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi gave a broader figure: during the day Russian attacks on Pryluky, Kremenchuk, Oleksandriia and Kyiv, including the evening attack on the capital, took 28 lives. According to him, rescuers and police freed from the rubble, evacuated or saved from fire 29 people.

A new attack on Kyiv on the night of 8 October

The following night drones attacked the capital again. In Desnianskyi district a Russian drone hit a 12-storey residential building at the level of the 10th floor; the fire spread to the upper floors and parts of the structure collapsed. According to the State Emergency Service, two people were killed and four injured, including two children. Rescuers saved 22 residents, among them eight children.

What Kyiv is saying

Zelensky urged world leaders not to stay silent and to increase pressure on Moscow: in his view, easing sanctions signals a “normalisation of war”. According to Vyhivskyi, clearing the rubble in Pryluky took more than 14 hours, and hundreds of people received help from psychologists of the police, the State Emergency Service and the National Guard.