Russian overnight strike with hundreds of drones and missiles: at least 19 killed and dozens injured in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Odesa (updated)

As a result of shelling by the Russian military on the night of April 16, 2026, in Kyiv and the Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv regions, the consequences are known, in particular at least 19 dead, dozens of victims, and destruction, according to the regional military administrations and the State Emergency Service (SES).

Aftermath of Russian strike in Odesa. Photo credit: Oleh Kiper

At night, the Russian military struck Ukraine with 703 drones and missiles. Ukrainian fighters shot down over 667 targets. At the same time, hits by 12 missiles and at least 20 drones were recorded in 26 locations.

Regarded victims of this attack are: 

• four adults and a 12-year-old child in Kyiv;
• nine adults in Odesa;
• four civilians in Dnipro.

In addition to them, dozens of people sustained injuries due to the Russian strikes, specifically over fifty in Kyiv, 30 in Dnipro, 19 in Odesa, as well as a family of three in the Mykolaiv Oblast and two in the Kharkiv region.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that, as well as the deaths in the capital, rescuers had pulled a mother and child from the ruins of a 16-story residential building that collapsed in Kyiv’s central Podilsky district.

In the north of Ukraine’s capital, four emergency medical workers were among those injured.

Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa Oblast Military Administration, reported later that port, critical, and residential infrastructure facilities had been damaged in Odesa as a result of the nighttime Russian attack.

Aftermath of the Russian strike in Odesa. Photo credit: Oleh Kiper

“The façade walls and windows of at least three high-rise buildings have been destroyed, and student accommodation and adjacent buildings have been damaged. Fires have broken out at some infrastructure sites due to the strike. Work is ongoing to contain the damage,” Kiper said.

In Kharkiv, a drone strike injured a 77-year-old woman and a 66-year-old man, an official said.

Update: Later, Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, reported that the number of people killed in the Russian strikes on the city of Dnipro on the night of 15-16 April had risen to four.

Aftermath of the Russian attack on a residential building in Dnipro.

“A 48-year-old man died in hospital after sustaining critical injuries in the overnight Russian attack on Dnipro. Doctors fought to save his life until the very end, but sadly, they were unable to save him,” he stated.

Update: At 4:20 p.m., Hanzha reported that rescuers had found the body of a 74-year-old man under the rubble of a residential building in Dnipro destroyed by the Russians. The overnight Russian attack has therefore claimed the lives of five people – three women and two men.

Local authorities reported that residential buildings, an office building, garages, and cars caught fire in Dnipro. A fire also broke out at an educational institution. Russian strikes damaged high-rise residential buildings, houses, office buildings, an educational institution, a care home for elderly people, a business facility, garage units, and cars, according to the SES.

As a result of the Russian attack, the Art Museum in Dnipro was damaged. All 96 windows in the building were blown out, and the facade was damaged, the museum reported.

In total, in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russians injured 34 civilians. Three people were injured in the Nikopol District and the city of Nikopol itself, causing fires in residential areas and in a disused building. The attacks damaged a five-story residential building and a car. 

A drone strike damaged a house and destroyed a building attached to it in the Novooleksandrivka “hromada,” a local government area that includes one or more nearby settlements, in the Dnipro District. The attack injured a 14-year-old girl.

Aftermath of the Russian attack on a residential building in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

Two cities in the south, Mykolaiv and Kherson, have been left without power, according to local officials.

One person was killed, and six others were injured in a Russian drone strike on the town of Merefa in the Kharkiv Oblast, according to Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration.

Syniehubov clarified that a 40-year-old woman sustained serious injuries, while three other women – aged 24, 30, and 42 – are in moderate condition. All four have been hospitalized. Two men, aged 26 and 29, were treated at the scene for shock.

The strike also damaged the premises of a civilian business.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that another night that proves Russia does not deserve any softening of global policy or lifting of sanctions.

“Russia is betting on war, and that is exactly how the response should be – we must protect lives with all our might and press for peace with all our might as well,” he stated on X. He previously warned that Ukraine was facing a critical shortage of Patriot air defence missiles.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated that such attacks cannot be normalized. He labeled them war crimes that must be stopped and their perpetrators held to account.

He called on other countries to “take immediate action” by issuing sanctions against Russia or offering packages of support for Ukraine.

“All decisions required to increase pressure on the aggressor must be unblocked now,” Sybiha wrote on X.

Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár has said his country is ready to block a new EU sanctions package against Russia. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he wanted to assume Orbán’s position in this matter, Slovak newspaper Denník N reported. 

Previously, ZMINA reported that as a result of Russian military shelling on April 14, 2026, eight civilians were killed in the Cherkasy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kherson regions, and another 62 people sustained injuries, including in the Donetsk and Kharkiv Oblasts.

U.S. President Donald Trump has not secured an end to Russia’s war within 24 hours of taking office,  as he had promised. Furthermore, numerous Ukrainian and international experts point out that the U.S., as a guarantor state under the Budapest Memorandum, is pressuring Kyiv into capitulation.

Matviichuk noted that the number of Ukrainian civilians killed or injured because of the war rose by 31% compared to the previous year. She asked why Trump’s year of negotiations was the deadliest for Ukraine’s civilian population since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“Why did Putin not allow himself such brutal strikes on civilian infrastructure under Biden, whom Trump calls ‘weak,’ but totally destroys peaceful cities and disregards the ‘strong Trump’?” she asked on her Facebook page. 

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