At night, the Russians massively attacked Kyiv with drones: Three people died, including a five-year-old girl
A Russian drone strike on the city of Kyiv killed three civilians, including a father and his five-year-old daughter. They also injured 10 others, among them an 11-month-old child on the night of March 22-23, 2025, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.
“Available information suggests that three people, including a five-year-old child, have been killed. A further 10 people have been injured. Among the dead are a father and his little daughter. The youngest person injured in the Russian attack is only 11 months old.”
According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (DSNS), the attack caused destructions in the Dniprovskyy, Podilskyy, Holosiivskyy, Desnianskyy and Shevchenkivskyy Districts of the capital.
Among those killed were a five-year-old Nicole and her father, Oleksandr Haranskyy, who lived in the Holosiivskyi District. Only Oleksandr’s mother, who is in the hospital with injuries, survived from the family.
A family friend, Diana Dudchenko, in a comment for Ukrayinska Pravda. Zhyttia said that the couple moved to Kyiv from Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, after the onset of the full-scale war. The Haranskyy family attended one of the capital’s churches, where they met Diana.
The woman added that the family lived in a small house on the church grounds, which was destroyed as a result of the drone attack.
Dudchenko characterized the Haranskyys as friendly and kind people who, despite losing everything in their native Orikhiv, tried to help others.
“They helped a lot, were kind, positive. Oleksandr organized a project in winter to collect and deliver gifts for children in frontline regions,” she added.
The woman also shared a video in which five-year-old Nicole, on March 19, 2025, was doing one of her favorite things—sculpting from plasticine. The woman said that she met the girl in kindergarten the next day, and then the children of the institution held a holiday for mothers.
“A positive girl. She went to the senior group in kindergarten and was supposed to go to the first grade in September,” the Kyiv resident shared her memories.
During the Russian attack on the capital, the Haranskyys were together in a small house on the church grounds. According to Dudchenko, Nicole and Oleksandr died immediately after the impact on their home.
“Oleksandra was thrown twenty meters away; she lay there for three hours until a local electrician found her,” added a family friend.
The woman is in the intensive care unit of one of the capital’s hospitals. A family friend, Dudchenko, is raising funds to help with Oleksandra’s treatment.
During the attack on the Dniprovskyi district, the strike also killed an 80-year-old woman, whose apartment completely burned down, according to the “KYIV24” Channel.
“Unfortunately, as a result of an enemy UAV attack on the Kyiv region in the Buchanskyy District, a woman born in 1997 and a man born in 1976 were injured. According to preliminary information, the victims suffered minor shrapnel injuries and an acute stress reaction,” an acting Head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, reported.
According to Kalashnyk, the attack damaged three private houses and a car in the Buchanskyy District. Russians also damaged another private house in the Fastiv District.
In the Brovaryy District, a fire broke out at an enterprise, which emergency services promptly extinguished.
The Air Force of Ukraine Russians launched 147 UAVs to attack Ukraine that night, 97 of which were downed by Ukraine’s air defence. On the previous two days, Ukraine’s forces downed 100 and 114 drones.
A total of 25 enemy decoy drones disappeared from radar.
Russians launched the drones from the Russian cities of Millerovo, Bryansk, Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk and the Ukrainian town of Prymorsk in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, temporarily occupied by Russians.
Ukrainian forces shot down drones in the south, north, west and centre of Ukraine.
The authorities reported that the Russian attack affected the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Odesa and Donetsk Oblasts.
Despite a deal to limit strikes on energy infrastructure that US President Donald Trump announced after a phone call with Russian ruler Vladimir Putin, Russians continue attacks on Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated on X that the Kremlin’s actions undermine US peace efforts, citing a Russian overnight attack on the city of Kyiv and previous strikes on Kropyvnytskyy, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa.
Sybiha recalled that this followed similar attacks on Kropyvnytskyy, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and other cities in recent days.
“Russia’s systematic and deliberate terror against civilians contradicts its statements about peace and undermines peace efforts by the US and other partners,” he said.
The foreign minister noted that Ukraine needs additional air defence capabilities to protect its people from Russian terror and to increase pressure on Moscow to end the war.
By way of background, Russia has presented maximalist demands for any deal, including a halt to arms shipments to Ukraine, a stance that Kyiv and its allies have firmly rejected. Experts stated that the White House, which briefly suspended vital weapons shipments earlier this month to pressure Ukraine, has not yet agreed to any restrictions.
European officials are concerned that Trump’s pursuit of a diplomatic victory could result in him compromising Ukraine’s interests by agreeing to terms that would leave the country vulnerable to future Russian attacks. They argue that Putin is simply stalling for time, aiming to secure further concessions from Trump and gain more success on the battlefield.
Vladislav Surkov, former adviser to Kremlin ruler Putin and chief ideologist of the “Novorossiya” project, which tries to annex southeastern Ukraine and Crimea, has stated that the ideology of the Russian World (Russkiy Mir) “has no borders”, meaning Russia will continue to expand its influence in all directions.c
The US-based Institut for the Study of War (ISW) pointed out that Surkov voiced Russia’s expanded imperial ambitions in an interview with the French weekly L’Express. He claimed that the ideology of the Russian world “has no borders” and exists “everywhere there is Russian influence.”
Surkov also stated that Russia would achieve this strategic goal, which he claimed had remained unchanged since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, despite potential “manoeuvres, slowdowns and pauses” along the way.
He said that bringing Ukraine back into Russia’s sphere of influence had been an objective since the collapse of the Soviet Union, referring to Ukraine as he labelled an “artificial political entity”.
Surkov believes that the Russo-Ukrainian war will “separate the Russians and the anti-Russians” and “confine” the latter within their “historical territory” so they “stop spreading across Russian soil”.
When asked about Russia’s borders, Surkov claimed that the ideology of the Russian World has no limits and exists “everywhere there is Russian influence” – be it cultural, military, economic, ideological or humanitarian. He stated that Russia “will spread out in all directions”.
Analysts emphasize that the Kremlin has repeatedly used the concept of the Russian World to justify military interventions in former Soviet republics, arguing that the territories of the former USSR and Russian Empire are historically Russian lands.
“The Kremlin has used the ‘Russkiy Mir’ narrative for decades to justify Russian aggression in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova and to set conditions to influence independent countries once colonised by the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire. Putin and other senior Russian officials have repeatedly propagated pseudo-history to deny Ukrainian statehood and nationhood and have falsely asserted that Ukraine’s Western neighbours have legitimate claims to Ukrainian territory to sow division between Ukraine and Europe,” the statement of the ISW reads.
Earlier, the analysts at the ISW warned that Putin is preparing Russians for a prolonged war in Ukraine and wants to use the upcoming ceasefire talks to obtain preventive concessions from Ukraine and the United States.
Statements by Putin and other Kremlin officials in recent days and weeks are reinforcing the message that Russia expects a prolonged war in Ukraine and peace only on its terms. It is also reported that Putin has explicitly told Russian businessmen to prepare for a protracted war.
