Zelenskyy warns of Russian Oreshnik strike after Kyiv attack

A warning about an Oreshnik launch turned Kyiv’s overnight air defenses into a race against the clock, as missiles and drones struck the capital just after 1 a.m. and left at least one person dead. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was preparing to use a hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile, citing intelligence shared by Ukraine, the United States and European partners, while the Ukrainian Air Force had already warned of a possible launch at 12:55 a.m.

The significance of that threat goes beyond the damage in Kyiv. Russia first used the Oreshnik missile in November 2024 in Dnipro, and later mention of the weapon in a January strike on Lviv drew Western criticism as escalatory and unacceptable. Its renewed appearance now signals more than another barrage: Moscow is advertising a willingness to pair mass drone-and-missile attacks with a weapon designed to carry a stronger strategic message, testing how far Ukraine’s defenses can be stretched and how much risk civilians will be forced to absorb.

The immediate backdrop was Vladimir Putin’s order for the Russian military to prepare retaliation options after a drone strike on a student dormitory in Russian-controlled Luhansk. Reuters reported that the strike initially killed at least four people and wounded 35 children, before the death toll was revised upward in later reports to 16 and then 18. Russian officials said many of the dead were young women. Ukraine said it had hit a Russian drone command unit, not civilians, and rejected Moscow’s account of the target.

That retaliatory cycle now threatens to widen the war’s next phase. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv had already warned of a potentially significant air attack within 24 hours, and Kyiv’s city military administration said there were at least four impact sites in Shevchenkivskyi, Dniprovskyi and Podil districts. Tymur Tkachenko and other officials reported residential damage and multiple injuries, underscoring how quickly a strategic warning can become a citywide emergency. For Kyiv, the message is stark: Russia is not only intensifying its firepower, it is using the Oreshnik threat to signal that civilian centers, air defenses and political resolve are all now part of the same battlefield.